# What you wish the afterlife would be like **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 30, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455 "2013-12-30T03:27:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/1 "2013-12-30T03:27:06Z")
In the future there might be conscious beings that inhabit computers - perhaps inside neutron stars. They might have a lot of leisure time and like going inside computer simulations - “sandbox” games like GTA V which include some story missions but also the freedom to just have random fun. They would eventually get bored then want to use cheats - they could possess other beings inside the game and live their lives out. They could play the “Groundhog Day” game. But in the end, assuming the game lets them, they’d know that they can make the games be exactly how they wish. Then they’d want challenges again. These challenges could last for decades at a time as they live the lives of ordinary people from birth to adulthood. After a while they’d stop being surprised though. They would have already been in a similar situation many times. So then they could hide some memories from themselves - so they’d forget about their true identity and only remember the character they are currently playing in the game. Then at death or in a near death experience they could learn more about the true nature that they’re hiding from themselves. Instead of realizing that they are omnipotent they might just learn they have some extra powers such as the power to repeat an experience, to switch bodies, to fly, to be invisible, to freeze time, etc. So when I’d die I’d like my life to continue in some way - though I might not be initially aware of how omnipotent I am though over the course of many lifetimes I’d learn about it but then to make me be surprised again I might hide that knowledge from myself again. BTW the people in the simulations would often just be simulations - of people from the past or invented people. Also the simulation could be run faster than real time so many lifetimes could be experienced in a short amount of time. It could use “level of detail” so fundamental particles aren’t explicitly simulated unless they really need to be. Also, what do people think this says about my morality, etc? (That I’m quite self-centered?) ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/2 "2013-12-30T03:37:18Z")
I’ll settle for Valhalla as described in existing lore. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/3 "2013-12-30T03:39:18Z")
32 flavors. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/4 "2013-12-30T03:43:04Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > 32 flavors. Sorry could you explain? What do you do all day in the afterlife of the 32 flavors? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/5 "2013-12-30T04:12:48Z")
Hiding your own omnipotence from yourself then rediscovering it over and over again through lifetimes of suffering and ignorance (just to reobtain what you always had) sounds like hell to me. Why would these computers be in neutron stars? An ideal afterlife for me would be one like the singularity. We wouldn’t be limited by biology (and its limitations on affect, cognition, etc). Boredom should be a thing of the past when we rewire the brain this century. There was an episode of Star Trek Voyager about the Q Continuum where the problems of stagnation and constant boredom become too much for people to handle. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/6 "2013-12-30T04:16:49Z")
Like a good night’s sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/7 "2013-12-30T04:18:10Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > \*\* What you wish the afterlife would be like\*\* I’m not sure, but I had really hoped that it would have been one hell of a lot further away from the “Does anyone here have an annuity?” thread… ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/8 "2013-12-30T04:30:11Z")
Were Paradise real, choirs of angels would use the Second Conditional correctly all day long. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/9 "2013-12-30T04:38:47Z")
A bit less after. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/10 "2013-12-30T04:50:47Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > Sorry could you explain? What do you do all day in the afterlife of the 32 flavors? Don’t explain it, johnpost. Let him suffer. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/11 "2013-12-30T04:51:30Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Hiding your own omnipotence from yourself then rediscovering it over and over again through lifetimes of suffering and ignorance (just to reobtain what you always had) sounds like hell to me. Most people are ignorant about the true nature of reality. Some may have guessed correctly. But at least this way I’d eventually truly know what the true nature of reality is like. And unlike the Christian Heaven/Hell system, I’m truly pleased with my idea. As far as suffering goes I’ve never really suffered much. Maybe suffering is mostly restricted to simulated characters within the game. The suffering I experience would have been planned by myself in advance. I was clinically depressed in the past and I am unable to get in contact with a girl I’ve been obsessed about but now I think my relationship is very good. Drama involves quite a bit of suffering. Drama is interesting and exciting. It involves a good story. No suffering would get boring. Well there’d also be no boredom. It would be like “Brave New World” except that no-one would ever feel empty or bored. This is actually what hell would be like: (if it existed) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tzynfCuJRBY/hqdefault.jpg "The Glory of the Punishment?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzynfCuJRBY) Being actually a god would involve playing hide and seek with yourself. It would be like doing a jig-saw puzzle and watching things fall into place. I find that satisfying not “hell”. Many people enjoy jig-saw puzzles. BTW in video games these days you often have to finish the game to enable the “cheats”. Though I’d rather they were unlocked already to make the game easier to play in the first place. > [@](#): > > Why would these computers be in neutron stars? books.google.com.au/books?isbn=0312700903 Do a search for “clockspeed”. > [@](#): > > An ideal afterlife for me would be one like the singularity. We wouldn’t be limited by biology (and its limitations on affect, cognition, etc). Yes if I became aware of my true nature I’d be able to customize those things too but for the time being I have seemingly biological limitations. > [@](#): > > Boredom should be a thing of the past when we rewire the brain this century. The drive to feel boredom could be eliminated (e.g. if you were in the Christian Heaven) but my solution for now is to hide memories. I recall people saying that they wish they could forget something so that they could experience it again for the first time. > [@](#): > > There was an episode of Star Trek Voyager about the Q Continuum where the problems of stagnation and constant boredom become too much for people to handle. The solution is to hide memories! BTW some lifetimes could include a guardian angel, etc, rather than always thinking there is no supernatural realm. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/12 "2013-12-30T04:53:26Z")
I imagine such beings would become bored, they would start to dream of a world where not everyone was instantly networked and could develop individual quirks and personalities through experiencing life alone. A movement would develop to re-engineer biological human bodies to accomplish this, and the cycle would end up repeating… ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/13 "2013-12-30T05:02:13Z")
BTW my idea explains exactly why my life might be why it is now - it is because maybe I am already experiencing the afterlife - I have some thoughts about what the afterlife is like but I don’t have my powers. Things fall into place every now and then though. BTW I said to some people that I’d believe in God if I got the house that I currently live in. Then I changed my mind and my wife said I was just making excuses. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/14 "2013-12-30T05:07:41Z")
> [@grude](#): > > I imagine such beings would become bored, they would start to dream of a world where not everyone was instantly networked and could develop individual quirks and personalities through experiencing life alone. A movement would develop to re-engineer biological human bodies to accomplish this, and the cycle would end up repeating… These people would already exist in the future - e.g. in GTA XXXV. NPC’s would begin with memories of their earlier lives (that didn’t really happen) - or maybe their memories would be “real”. The simulation could begin from the big bang and then there would be guided evolution to ensure that humans evolved and guided history to ensure the right historical events happened - events that are a bit of a parody of the “actual” events (which may also be a simulation). Some weird supernatural events could be thrown in so that people aren’t sure whether there is a supernatural realm. ---
**Author:** ![randompattern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@randompattern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randompattern)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/15 "2013-12-30T05:18:34Z")
As long as I had enough to eat and a place to sleep ,I’m good. Oh yea and a car …a NICE car. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/16 "2013-12-30T07:46:10Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Like a good night’s sleep. Yeah, pretty much. I’d like the afterlife to be…nothing. Annihilation, please. > [@randompattern](#): > > As long as I had enough to eat and a place to sleep ,I’m good. Oh yea and a car …a NICE car. A comfortable after-existence is certainly better than a hellish one. I suppose I wouldn’t complain too awfully if I ended up in the Elysian Fields. But I’d end up with the problem of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (short story by Ursula K. LeGuin.) I’d start worrying whether everyone else also had the same comfort. I’m too much of a universalist. So long as anyone, anywhere, is unhappy, my own happiness cannot be complete. So…I’d prefer my afterlife to be a little like my life: I want some limited power to work to make things better for all. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/17 "2013-12-30T08:09:03Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > They would have already been in a similar situation many times. So then they could hide some memories from themselves - so they’d forget about their true identity and only remember the character they are currently playing in the game. Funny how you keep mentioning [video games…](http://www.theonion.com/articles/videogame-character-wondering-why-heartless-god-al,274/) ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/18 "2013-12-30T08:56:25Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > Funny how you keep mentioning [video games…](http://www.theonion.com/articles/videogame-character-wondering-why-heartless-god-al,274/) See also the ending to “The Simpsons Game”: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/a7w2L33z-ng/maxresdefault.jpg "Let's Play! - The Simpsons Game (PS3) Final Battle & Ending") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7w2L33z-ng&t=2m11s) ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/19 "2013-12-30T09:04:19Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Yeah, pretty much. I’d like the afterlife to be…nothing. Annihilation, please. But how will you know if you get your way? :dubious: > [@Trinopus](#): > > A comfortable after-existence is certainly better than a hellish one. I suppose I wouldn’t complain too awfully if I ended up in the Elysian Fields. But I’d end up with the problem of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” (short story by Ursula K. LeGuin.) I’d start worrying whether everyone else also had the same comfort. I’m too much of a universalist. So long as anyone, anywhere, is unhappy, my own happiness cannot be complete. And the trouble with that is covered in a short novel by another author (_The Great Divorce_ by C. S. Lewis): that there are some people who would rather be eternally miserable and make other people so than be happy on anything other than their own terms. “It sounds grand to say that you’ll accept no salvation that leaves one soul in the cold outside. But watch that sophistry or you’ll make a Dog in the Manger the tyrant of the universe.” ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2013, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455/20 "2013-12-30T11:42:56Z")
I’d be fine if it was just like here, but smoking was good for you. As an atheist, I’m just looking forward to the peace and quiet. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-you-wish-the-afterlife-would-be-like/677455.md?page=2)