From: Joel Pitt (extropy@paradise.net.nz)
Date: Fri Dec 03 2004 - 17:55:09 MST
As mentioned in another post, apoligies for angsting on the list...
I think I should revise my outlook in the bright light of day:
I'm not so much ambivalent towards death, but I don't fear it.
I guess constantly battling with depression and the desire to
just escape by ending it all has taken any edge off the concept
of death for me. It has probably also made me confuse exactly
what I want.
However, when in a good frame of mind I certainly don't want
to die and I want to do what I can to maintain that frame. But
despite exercise, meditation and pharmaceutical help it is sometimes
impossible to avoid going downhill.
-joel
Ben Goertzel wrote:
> Hmm...
>
> Personally I don't *fear* death that much, but I generally enjoy life a
> lot and would much prefer to keep living. Although my current existence
> is clearly deeply flawed, I'd much rather repair these flaws and
> continue my current individual-consciousness-stream, than have this
> individual-consciousness-stream die off. Although I do have some
> important things to contribute, I don't delude myself that I'm necessary
> for the future of mind in the universe (if I get hit by a truck tomorow,
> or if I get tired of dealing with funding hassles and wind up not
> bothering to create the AI that launches the Singularity, some other
> goofball probably will build it eventually.... Sure, it's possible the
> future will be massively better if I get there first, but it's really
> hard to estimate the probablity of that).
>
> Unlike Joel, I'm not ambivalent about whether I die -- I think that if I
> die, that will SUCK massively.... But in all probability (unless
> creating a superhuman AI on Earth 5-10 years earlier than would
> otherwise occur is going to make a cosmic difference) it won't be a
> tragedy, just one more example of the suckage that pervades the universe
> (an example of particular importance to me though not to the universe at
> large)
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