Good morning/day/evening, everyone!

Personally, I find myself thinking about death rather often when I'm lying in my bed encompassed by darkness and silence... Sometimes to the extent of horrific feelings that envelop me whilst contemplating various thoughts on what could... Or perhaps could not be after we die. A cold shiver down my spine would be the closest approximation. What I'd like to know, since all of you are like-minded game developers, is how much death "bothers" you? Do you think about it often and if you are a wee-bit older, does that "pressure" get harder on you with passing years or have you settled with reality through religion or some other form of... Uhm, philosophy?

As of my beliefs, I'm an agnostic since I find all stories about gods like outdated fairy tales that people take too seriously (no offense, anyone). The likelihood of something like that is so... Surreal to me. I don't like the inconsistency, "greater plans" and dogmatic nature of not asking questions. That's too much to ask from a rational human being. I am not even certain that something bigger exists in any form, let alone a human-conceived image of god. The truth is, the Universe (and I refer to absoultely everything that "exists" in some way or another) doesn't necessarily have to respond to the same notion of our logical reasoning, perhaps it has nothing even close to the concept of a cause and consequence. The question why does everything exists could be easily counteracted by a "why not?".

Without turning this into a monologue, I was wondering... What do you guys think? Since we all are game developers, we are all very adept at thinking about an end of a project or a game's story/campaign. How do you rationalize the possible end of our existence?

Honestly, death always manages to freak me out. I am not afraid of the unknown as long as there is an unknown besides oblivion. One thing that bogs me down even more is the thought of dying alone, damn, that's messed up.

I apologise if the topic is too grim, I'd just like to hear your thoughts on this. I am a very open person and even though I am agnostic with expressed disbelief in various gods, I would still love to hear everyone's opinion. Maybe you have something in perspective that I do not, who knows?

Think of it this way: You won't be paying taxes anymore!

I'm Athiest, but I read the Bhagavad Gita somewhat regularly -- I see it as a poem of complete fiction, but I find it's wisdom to be comforting.
In the philosophy it lays out, the equivalent to Christian Hell/Purgatory is reincarnation, and the equivalent to Christian Heaven is your oblivion.
It teaches you to go forth and live a good life so that at the end of it you'll be rewarded with the final death instead of being given yet another life. Sinners continue to be reborn until they learn to live a good life, at which point they too are rewarded with Oblivion.

It's interesting to see how one man's ultimate fear can be another's ultimate reward.

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I like to contemplate on exactly what the words "I am", "I" or "me" mean. Almost every religion has a concept of the self being more than mind and body - there's usually a 3rd part being the soul/spirit. In my view, the soul/spirit is the magnificence of the universe being concious of it's own existence - a phenomenon that you can ascribe to the universe as a whole instead of defining separate bodies within the universe and ascribing it to those organisms.
I am my body, my mind, and this phenomenon of the universe being self-aware. When my body and mind are gone, this phenomenon, this spirit that I am (and we all are) will still persist - and though it contains none of my memories or knowledge, it is as much a part of "I" as my body/mind are, so even though a large part of "I" will die, this one part of what makes up "me" never will.
A lot of religious comfort comes from this eternity of the soul, and I've found it's possible to internalise those comforts without ever believing in a soul or a god or anything magical.

Think of it this way: You won't be paying taxes anymore!

Ahahah, good one!

@Hodgman - That's a very down to earth approach, but what always captures my imagination is the transition from the living to the dead, no matter what the final actual form is. Specifically, how does it "feel" like, the shutting down. I love Richard Dawkins' quote: "Matter flows from place to place and momentarily comes together to be you. Some people find this thought disturbing, I find the reality thrilling."

That's somehow what I feel about this world and our short existence (relative to the age of the cosmos), but still... I can't shake the fear of the actual end, losing my memories and experiences, everything that defines me... The rest is just a shell. Some people would say that fear is good, it's a reminder you're still alive.

Ive been thinking about it too...I guess death is like dreaming, but were not gonna wake up in the same world...anymore...
Anyway the elders here said that when people are dying, they experience a great thirst of cold water...hmm what does it mean?

Ive been thinking about it too...I guess death is like dreaming, but were not gonna wake up in the same world...anymore...
Anyway the elders here said that when people are dying, they experience a great thirst of cold water...hmm what does it mean?

That they never had a coke?

There is the physical death, which is the body itself. The death of the body has been described pretty throughly .. ie vision goes dark, you see bright tunnel.. loved ones.. sense of peace (dry throat?). That's just the end of your physical existence. I've lived long enough to know that we arn't just physical beings, there is a another nature to our reality beyond our physical perceptions. Either by intent or acquiescence, it's not as obvious but it's there. I've experienced it in several ways ie information leakage from a future perspective, subtle telepathy, synchronicity, etc.. I think if your open too it, you'll see it or not.. but given the sheer volumes written about it already, throughout history obviously something "other" exist than mere physical reality.

People have given it a name and a form, like gods or demons or soul or spirit or magic. Those names only reflect us not the true nature of existence. Some people just give up naming it at all and call it the unknowable, the alpha and the omega, using metaphor instead to describe it but that is just as limited. Ultimately i don't think it matters what we call or name it. We're here at this point in time. Maybe we're the universe made conscious, a giant experiment in free will or maybe were just recordings of a long dead race, played back unaware of our true nature predestined etc... There isn't enough information to make any grand declarations, maybe by design?

As for death? That's hard to say.. one thing is known. If the universe continues after your death (no guarantee it does, this could be a simulation and your the only reason this universe even exist like that twilight zone episode), even after death peoples actions echo on, maybe forever? Just like you are a distant echo of someone who lived millions of years ago and further back of some fish which lived 100s millions of years ago and further back of some star which exploded billions of years ago.. etc.. The long chain of existence, of great improbable actions and impossible outcomes. What more can you ask for?

-ddn

well me personally I believe when you die you cease to exist, but the way I see it when that happens ill be to dead to care! that and no more taxes woot woot!

Once a week probably. But I don't care too muck. Fuck knows, I will find out eventually. However, I'm afraid that there's a kind of hell/purgatory/Lost's Island/Jacob's ladder, so I try to be happy so that it will be easier to let things and life go and go to Heaven/Nirvana/Cosmic Goo/whatever.

The impact of the life you lead will live on. If you were to take that impact and metaphorically scrunch it up into a ball of some sort you could maybe think of it as your soul or spirit (or a rose by some other name if your not comfortable with the loaded meaning of those words).