Most people don't have a death wish.
Do you have a personal plan to achieve immortality? Unless mentally unbalanced, death is something most would prefer to avoid. Now in my mid-60s, I'm beginning to think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it's no doubt an oncoming train.
Death is an emotional topic, so I want to lighten the mood. I've had fun with this post, going wild with the emojis. I hope, despite the somber topic, you'll have some fun too.
If I've done my job, this article should raise a lot of questions.
Unstoppable Time...
Photo courtesy of Fabrizio Verrecchia and http://unsplash.com
Time is fun when you're having flies...⏳🕰️⏱️📅
It's less fun when you realize you have no control over it. We can't stop the hourglass, or the clock, or the calendar... Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years, decades, a century? They pass us by relentlessly, and then, Bye-Bye!
Death is a train that's 🚅 heading our way. ☠️⚰️⚱️
But, are we ready to die? Throughout the centuries, and now with increasing vigor, people have sought ways to extend their lives.
Death is like a high-speed train, headed our way
Photo courtesy of Bart Anestin and http://unsplash.com
"Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die." 🎉🎈
Death is inevitable, so why worry? Just party the night away, enjoy whatever life we have. We may all cop this attitude occasionally, and perhaps we suppress thoughts of death much of the time. But then, in the wee hours, those haunting thoughts return. We will face death.
What if we stop killing ourselves? 🍔🍟🌭🍕🍿🍩🍬🍪🍨🍺🍻🍷🍸🍹🚬🏴🕯️
Maybe if we quit eating that junk food? Ah, but it tastes so good! What if we cut down on our drinking? Dry out our liver? Take better care of ourselves?
Some try exercise. ⛱️🏄⛷️⚽🏋️🌊🏊🏖️
Use it or lose it! Pump that iron! Enjoy surf, sun,and sand. Get some fresh mountain air. Hike, backpack, breathe deeply. Jog that trail, fire up the treadmill, dust off the weights. These may all extend our lives a bit.
Eat 🍑🍐 and drink🍌🍆 healthful🍇🍋 things. 🍒🍓🍎🍉🌽🍊🍍🍅🚰
Eat more organic foods, eliminate toxins from our diet. Drink alkaline water. Fresh, raw fruits and vegetables contain restorative nutrients. Juicing may be part of a vibrant lifestyle. An industry has grown up around "nutraceuticals," natural replacements for drugs. All may add years to our lives.
Maybe medicinal herbs will help?🌶️🍄
Cayenne peppers are reputed to have healed cancer. Certain mushrooms are said to contain outrageous amounts of antioxidants. There is CoQ-10, resveratrol, pine bark, yams, chia seed; the list goes on and on and on.
Spend $$$💰 on medical professionals and rejuvenating drugs. 😷🏥💉💊
Have our blood pressure checked. Get our serum tested. Are we managing our anger? Wear our filter mask... germaphobia strikes deep.
A Body Repair Shop
Photo courtesy of Sasin Tipchai and http://pixabay.com
Research longevity, find a solution? 📖📜📚🔬⚗️✂️⚖️📈🔍📻🔎📺💽💡🗺️🌎🌍🌏🌐
How about lengthening those telomeres? Cleanse and renew, flush the toxins out of our systems! Every cell in the human body is replaced over the course of seven years... Why not replace them with good, young ones?
Have we missed some ancient wisdom? Scour the globe! Maybe in the medical library stacks we'll find the 🔑key... 🔓Maybe we'll discover the genius idea 💡that will keep us alive.
Science Fiction suggests consciousness might be transferred? 💻
Shall we scan our brain, recording each neuron?💭 Might we transfer our mental state into some computer memory fabric? Could we live forever in a box? Would we want to?
What about identity? Would such copies be us or would we now be twins? What, exactly, makes me "me?"
Do we really live on in memories, or in our children, or our works? 👪🚸🎖️📚🏅📖📓
Our friends and family will remember us — for a while — when we're gone... but we're still gone. Our children may carry our genes, but they each have their own identities, not ours. Books we write, our Steemit articles, our inventions may remain in the world continuing to do some good, but our consciousness is no longer here.
Some get religion... 📿✝️☦️⛪🛐🕍🕌
We head on down to our nearest church, synagogue, or mosque. We say a few prayers, practice a few rituals, drop some coin in the collection. Maybe we believe; maybe we're just trying to hedge our bets.
Others turn to fortune tellers. 🔮
With trepidation, we try to peer into the future. Gypsies, fortune tellers, tarot cards. What will happen to me tomorrow? Can I avoid that accident? Even if we are in perfect youth and health, the risk of death may still lurk right around the corner.
🚀Could E.T. provide us with the secret? 🔭
Perhaps an advanced, spacefaring civilization will show up and give us the technology we need for eternal life. Who knows?
Time for a tune-up...
Photo courtesy of skeeze and http://pixabay.com
Despite all the frenetic efforts made to date,
the longest anyone in recent history has lived is about 122 years. That's not quite twice the median age at death. Just how promising does that sound to you? Personally speaking, I'm underwhelmed. And, even if we could extend our physical lives and health indefinitely, what about accidents? Tidal waves? Earthquakes? Murder? The list of risks is endless. Yet we keep seeking, keep hoping, for eternal life.
Don't feel alone in your quest!
Everyone, from the poorest among us, to the rich and famous would like to live forever. Consider this famous quote:
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying." - Woody Allen
We couldn't agree with you more, Woody... but who's going to help us with that? How can we achieve immortality?
Ready or Not, Death Is Headed Our Way
Photo courtesy of OpenClipart-Vectors and http://pixabay.com
We've briefly considered a vast list of efforts and options to extend our lives. In the final analysis, none that we've considered thus far have been truly satisfactory...
But, what if immortality were a gift? 🎁
What if we didn't have to spend our entire lives fearing death? What if we didn't have to frenetically strive to hold the grim reaper at bay? Here is what the most famous person of all time, The Man who divides our reckoning of the centuries into two eras, had to say about the matter:
"I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." - Jesus
Jesus is The Man. He's the One to Whom I look for immortality. This is not religion, this is a relationship. Jesus knows me, inside and out because He made me:
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them."
- Psalm 139:13-16
Who better to turn to for repair, reconstruction, revitalization, reintegration, resurrection, than the One Who designed and created me? Who else can I rely on to insure the continuity of my consciousness, my personal identity?
I invite you, my reading friend,
to consider Jesus' free offer of immortality. Wouldn't you like to live forever? If you could, wouldn't that be really good news?
I wouldn't be here on Steemit if it weren't for you, my readers!
I have very eclectic interests and hope, over time, to write about all of them.
⬇️To Check Out @creatr's World⬇️CLICK Each Image Below⬇️
|
|
|
Has it ever occurred to you that you have done what you're supposed to do? what if you haven't?
I don't want to live forever as most people with near death experiences have told of a beautiful place, where flowers seem to sing and are alive, full of love and not wanting to come back to earth :)
Hello, my friend @immarojas, Thank you for stopping by and offering your comments on my article.
My personal plan for eternal life is relying on what Jesus has done and will do for me. That may very well involve dying (for a while) but the bible offers me the promise of a resurrection of my body back to life. The beautiful place you are speaking of may be "heaven."
My purpose in this article is mostly to get people thinking about whether or not they are ready. ;)
I will never die, I will live forever and I have nothing to fear. That is what Jesus promised and I trust him, end of story.
Thank you, @steemtruth, for your affirmation here. I'm thankful that we share:
There is nothing to fear in death for death is merely the dissolution of atoms and there is nothing to fear in the dissolution of atoms, for when death occurs the soul has already departed. ~Epicurus Since the dawn of time, man has avoided death, to what avail? Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is one of the greatest treatises on death ever written. It elucidates man's inchoate fear of death and to what means he will go to avoid it. My attitude is "fuck it" it's unavoidable so I plan to live until I die (without engaging in suicidal behavior like bungee jumping). Remember the Redneck's famous last words...Hey Y'all watch this!!!
For me, faith in Jesus has removed the primal fear of death. I still retain some nervousness about it, and the practical issues of aging are troubling, but I look forward, by God's kindness, to a literal, bodily resurrection one day in the future.
Hey, thanks for the Re-Steem, Rich! ;)
You bet, my friend... I can't wait to see Jesus! One thing I comfort myself about aging with is this: Every old person since the dawn of time has made it through aging and so will I (God willing)
I am in full agreement. When we personally receive the finished work of Christ on the cross, we can stare death in the face and say: "O Death, where is your sting?"
Thank you for stopping by and commenting, @groundbreaker.
This post has been ranked within the top 50 most undervalued posts in the second half of Feb 04. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $9.52 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Feb 04 - Part II. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
If you are the author and would prefer not to receive these comments, simply reply "Stop" to this comment.
Thank you, as always, for noticing! ;)
we are all immortal beings- the death of these 3-d carbon bodies in no way marks the death of our being- the complete opposite actually- it's liberating to our higher dimensional selves who await our return upon mission completion here.
Hello, @thelightreports,
First, I apologize for the lateness of my reply. I truly do appreciate that you stopped by my blog and left a thoughtful comment for me to read. Thank You!
However, I do not believe that man is inherently immortal or multi-dimensional. Nevertheless, I would be interested in hearing the basis for the belief that you've briefly stated here.
Thanks again for entering the conversation! I do have some other general articles on this subject listed in my Topical Table of Contents that can be access via this GIF: 😄😇😄
There are several reasons that I believe this- the most tangible being that scientists have actually weighed the body of a person before death and at the time of death and determined the soul actually has weight that leaves the body upon death- http://www.noeticscience.co.uk/weighting-the-human-soul/
Thanks for sharing your rationale, and for the link. I had heard of something like this many, many years ago. I appreciate your comment; you've given my mind something to work on today! :)
My pleasure- Here's something else you may ant to have a look at- I've read all of Dr. Newton's books- his work is very compelling and interesting.....
Also create there are many compelling cases of children for instance who recall their past life- there was a kid in Texas I believe who was a WWII pilot in the S. Pacific
Thank you for the additional explanation and references. I'll have a look when I can.
my life verse: Ps 23:6
Surely a good verse to rely upon! Thanks for sharing, John! ;)
The subject of immortality is much bigger than many people, believers or not, may realize. After all, it is part of the first lie ever documented.
Certainly agreed. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts, either comments or a post. If you do a post, please "clue me in" with a comment here? :) Thanks!
It will be the topic of my next post since there more to say about it than the average comment. I'll definitely let you know when it's up.
Thank you, my friend! :)
The post is up now.
Thanks! Good post.
Sorry for you, but .... because of the psi-2 limit, AKA Tononi-Markram limit, each memory you don't recall for ~60 years is lost forever. Which means, even having your immortality, you cannot enjoy it, just because you aren't aware of it.
Greetings, @puffosiffredi, and thank you for stopping by with your fascinating comment!
I had not heard of this limit before. Based on your comment, I am beginning to read about it.
Nevertheless, I expect to fully enjoy my immortality because of certain expected "upgrades" to my personal physical and mental apparatus. So, while I appreciate your condolences, I believe they are premature. ;)
Thanks again for opening the door for me to investigate some new ideas! :) :) :)
Well, after the "upgrade" in order to be immortal, what remains of your brain is nothing you would define "you", or "human", so that , together with the need to change telomeres and suppress steroids, what would be "immortal" is not "you". You need to change so many things to make a human "immortal", what results of it is everything but "human". Give you now are "human", what would be immortal would not be "you".
You need to modify or change how your immune system works too, since immune system is in charge to break unused synapses. And so, and so....
Hi again my friend! You've said:
But my expectation is that I will still be human, but trans-human, i.e. a new, improved model, while still remaining "myself."
I do understand (and appreciate!) your concerns and your description of how such a task might be accomplished using appropriate technology that we can presently foresee, and I would share your misgivings if I were attempting to do this on my own, by some "technological" method. Just as I raised the question in my article as to whether or not, if our "brain" were somehow transferred into a "memory box," would it still be "us?"
However, my confidence in the matter is entirely placed in the agent of change, Jesus. I believe Jesus be the very God Who originally created this universe and (considerably later on) created me within this universe. With a track record like that, and the skill and knowledge that implies, I have no doubt that He has the knowledge and skill to accomplish such a transformation without any loss of continuity of my personal identity.
Paul, the last Apostle of the Christian church, stated it this way:
There is much more in the literature of the Bible that bolsters my confidence in a spectacular future. I thank you again, @puffosiffredi, for your engaging comments!
There is nothing like "yourself". What you call "yourself" is , according with most recent science, the result of a jeopardy of point of views about yourself. Human brain keeps a dozen of "self images" of "yourself", so there is no way you may be "yourself".
Bible... bah. A book saying nothing, written by a brunch of ignorant , inbreeded goatfuckers. Those people was aware of just a few things more than the goats they were having sex with. There is no "knowledge" in the Bible, just because this ignorant population had no knowledge at all, (no math, no chemistry, no biology, nothing of nothing), so there was nothing they could have written on this book.
I know about transhumanism and I work with AI, and most of your expectations are more sci-fi than likely to happen.
Hello again, friend. I'm interested in your knowledge and study of these topics; of AI and of consciousness, and so I've followed you to read more.
However, you appear to be seriously misinformed about the Bible. Are these your own ideas, or are you simply echoing the ill-founded thoughts of others? Have you ever even read it for yourself? There are plenty of competent translations, including several in Italian.
The bible was written by an extremely broad cross-section of humans, ranging from shepherds to statesmen to kings. Authors include some of the most highly skilled and trained men of their day, unparalleled scholars in fields of history and language. Perhaps because of your narrow focus on sciences it has not been of enough interest for you to read?
Hi Creatr, being born in Italy, I was forced to study the catholic religion at school, one hour a week, but a few years where I was allowed to say "no". Then it had become mandatory again. So you don't lecture me. Do not even try, you cannot.
I was lucky because , together with religion, I studied philosophy at the same school, so the priest wasn't able to brainwash me. When you know about fallacies, religion cannot harm you. Because you see what religion is.
Very simple to explain with an example:
I am the only son. And of course, when I was young, I had an imaginary brother. Why? Because I didn't had a real one. Most of orphans are having imaginary parents. This is normal in the human brain.
The same is for the Imaginary Father you call "God".
The fact you have God, which is an imaginary father, just tells me you had no father, or a useless/absent one. That's it. This is why God is hardly seen as a mother, when society gives to mother the whole task of raising the offspring: you don't need an imaginary mother. But, since in this kind of society you only have shit of fathers, most of people will just invent an imaginary father, because the real father was a shit of father.
You dream to have an imaginary father which can do everything, just because you grow under the feeling your father wasn't able to give enough to you. You dream to have an imaginary father which is everywhere, just because your actual father was never there when you needed him. And you dream to have an imaginary father which knows everything, just because you grow under the impression your father told you nothing useful.
That's is: God is just "the imaginary father I created in my mind, to take the place of the shit of father I actually had". Religion is what happens when a society has, in general, most of shitty fathers. When the influence of priests decreased, and fathers started to take care of sons in Europe, religion dropped dramatically.
Religion is just a tax you pay for having had a shit of father when young. If my sons will be into religion, I will consider this as my personal failure as a father. As it should be.
recall your memories daily :D , have a memory bank if you must after the 800-th year :D
This is what elders used to do in Italy. They sit together in the middle of some street, talking ant talking about their youth. This had the precious funcion to recall memories. So your immortals would look like that:
forever.
haha :) yeah , :) good times :D
funky grooves
"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."
Thank you, @bladetrigger, for stopping by and commenting! :)