From: Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Date: Mon Nov 18 1996 - 07:02:27 MST
Jake Costello wrote:
>
> Sometimes terms like "eternal life" and "immortality" seemed to get
> tossed around pretty casually around here. This is a bit curious to me,
> since one of the main driving forces behind my leaving Xtianity (and
> ultimately bumping into transhumanism)that the idea of truly eternal
> life ceased to automatically be appealing or even make any sense.
> What do I mean, it doesn't make sense? Eternal life and
> immortality as traditionally conceived refer to infinities. (I'm using
> "eternal" in its temporal, rather than atemporal, sense). Everybody
> on this list is certainly well acquainted with the fundamental
> difference between an infinite quantitity and a finite quantity, no
> matter how large. An infinity is as different from a finite quantity as
> any finite quantity is from a zero.
> To make a not exactly logical leap here, it seems equally
> obvious that an infinite (or semi-infinite) lifespan is as different
> from any finite lifespan as a finite lifespan is from never existing at
> all. Theologians have long recognized this difficulty. Unfortunately,
> the answers they give tend to boil down to the most intellectually
> dishonest trick in their arsenal: It's beyond human understanding.
> What I want to know is, how many of you want real eternal life
> as opposed to an indefinite lifespan? (The difference here is a fuzzy
> part of these wonderings, but the real difficulties that come with
> eternal life don't seem to be a problem with indefinite lifespans.)
> For those of you who do, how do you conceive of such an existence?
> Much has been written in extropian circles about how one can
> meaningfully retain one's identity while vastly augmenting one's mental
> capabilities. It seems to me that if one proposes truly eternal life,
> the task must be at least partially repeated to justify a claim to being
> the same person, living eternally.
> As to myself, I'm inclined towards a bit despair (not very
> extropian, for sure.) Some form of atemporality seems the best option,
> but this is really fuzzy territory.
>
> dreaming of Rivendell,
>
> jake costello
I guess to me, since none of you existed before I was born, and none of
you will exist to me when I'm dead, then I already have eternal life as
much as can be, as the universe only exists for me for my whole life.
Unfortunately, I don't seem to have enough eternal life coming to me
(probably only 70 more years) unless I do something about it. We wish
to live as much life as we want to. When we have no more need of life,
its our choice to end it.
Mike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:51 MST