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Comment by ne0flex | Hacker News Reader

I don't necessarily view life as a toleration of living and waiting until death, o hope for a "real thing" after death. I'm more hoping for something along of the lines of a "next phase" like transition from school life to working life. The idea the equation of experiences and knowledge if your life ends with an ...)*0 is just depressing. I'd like to continue to build on my life experiences and reconnect with loved ones, at least in some sense in relation to my individual experience, not a metaphorical one - if that makes sense.

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Yeah death sucks and most people aren't ready for it. We can't really know if "afterlife" exists but imo, it's not wise to live life assuming that that is the case. It might be better to do your best assuming you can't tell if there is an afterlife. If there's no afterlife, you did your best and if there is one then it's a bonus.

It's not that life ends in a *0 - it's more that we don't get to know what effect our life has. The not-knowing is the hard part. But a little imagination is all it takes to see that life could have some undiscovered long term effect.

I mean 0 in terms of yourself. If nothing exists after death, the way I view it is that upon your death, from your perspective, time ceases to exist and everything essentially dies, sure the world may continue existing around you but, but from you're perspective, it has effectively ended thus 0. The "greater effect" thing is off less concern to me and just seems to sidestep the fact that the objective you ceases to exist.

which 'you' are you talking about?

you exist as a entity in other's minds: which is arguably a larger pool of 'you' than the you in your mind.

which explains the drive to influence others: when someone does something out of 'remembrance' or a tribute, metaphorically they are 'running your code'. extorting influence through these proxy 'you' in other's minds is the goal of some people...

if you solidify yourself in other's minds you might survive as an idea throughout the years - that's the part of you that lives forever... so update and modify your image in other's minds while you still can.

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