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Comment by KMnO4 | Hacker News Reader

Isn't it interesting how we immediately get uncomfortable with that thought? I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Logically, there’s no reason to get upset about bodies being ground up after they’re dead (since, well, they’re dead). But something about the (cultural?) sanctity of death and burial turns a whole lot of gears in my brain that I can’t explain.

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I've told my family they can leave my corpse in the forest for the wolves to eat, or roll it in a carpet and throw down a bridge, don't care one way or the other.

So yeah, cultural sanctity of death is indeed interesting.

Wolves don't eat carrion as far as I'm aware, so you would be not helping the wolves if that's your goal. Perhaps taking long night-time walks in the forest would be go down better? As for the bridge idea, I think the officers in charge of silt removal would not appreciate your legacy either.

I think cemeteries perform a rather useful function which is closer to waste disposal than ritual - the ritual is to soften the blow of that impersonal, utilitarian attitude to death.

> Wolves don't eat carrion as far as I'm aware [...] As for the bridge idea, I think the officers in charge of silt removal would not appreciate your legacy either.

The beauty of the plan is that I would not have to worry about any of these.

Death rites are not for the benefit of the deceased.

I keep telling my kids that they should wrap me in linen and dump me into a silty lake so that I have the best chance to fossilize, but they go on and on about "respect for the dead" and "police" and whatnot so I'll probably just end up in a box.

My standing orders are to donate whatever organs/pieces that are still viable after I've finished trying to destroy them with my lifestyle. Take the rest and wrap it in linen and bury it without a box in the backyard. We have registered with the county as having grave sites, so it's perfectly legal.

I tell them that I want simple with my remains, don't go nuts. That way you can spend all that extra money on a 30 foot marble statue of a sword wielding archangel Michael that shoots fire and shouts my name occasionally.

Have you tried requesting burial in New Orleans? Although you might float out before you fossilize.

Being fossilized and found by future archaeologists a few thousand years down the line sounds like one of the better ways to end up. Too bad I will never know about it.

I have family members who've said the same thing. They'd insisted that they didn't care at all about what happened to their bodies when they died, but when I suggested they donate their bodies to necrophiliacs they didn't care for the idea.

Go for a Tibetan-style "sky burial": just add vultures!

Even cremation, common though it is, weirds me out. I won't make any claims to it being a rational thought process, either. Dead is dead. But there's something about eliminating the form of the body that just makes me feel unwell. I didn't even know I would feel that way until years ago when my little brother passed away and was then cremated. The moment I found out he had been cremated was more emotional than I'd have thought. It wasn't quite as bad when my mom recently died and was also cremated, I knew what to expect, but still. I occasionally go to my father's grave (not cremated) and feel as if I can talk to him. No such delusion is possible when I go to my mom's grave site.

I'm weird. No denying that.

Growing up we always buried pets when they passed and the ritual was somewhat soothing. Digging the hole yourself was part of the final rite.

When my partners cat got euthanized she let the vet just walk away with the body for cremation and we got a little box of (hopefully the cats) ashes a few weeks later. Felt gross to me but she didn't want to touch the body and was fine having that sterile veterinary room be the last time she saw her.

Ten days ago my mate's dog died. I was so very fond of that absurd little creature. I've lost very few people that I care about so I don't have much to compare with, but the little creature's death hit me really so hard, more so than with any person. I have heard that the death of a pet can hit harder than that of a person, and that's what I seem to have found much to my astonishment. Has anyone found the same?

I've lost many pets over the years and my father, and grandparents I was close to. I think it depends on the circumstance. Losing a pet unexpectedly is worse than losing a grandparent to old age. A pet dying of old age is a mix of grief and relief (especially if you have to make the decision). My father died suddenly of a heart attack, that was worse than losing any of my pets, but it was a more amorphous pain, spread out over time.

We're with our pets a lot more than with extended family so it makes sense that a pet dying can be more intense than losing a friend or family member who does not live with you.

I don’t share your perspective, but I appreciate it. Grief has no logical framework, so sometimes the result of it is a bit “illogical”.

Thanks for sharing.

The thing is, it doesn't matter to the dead, but has psychological and physiological implications on the living :)

Funerals are for the living. just put me in the trash

Not sure if Frank Reynolds or Diogenes of Sinope.

Actually, maybe I know the answer based on that awesome word in your username.

Same person.

Personally, I feel like I'm not any more uncomfortable with it anymore than I am with cremation – both would be pretty gnarly if they happened to you if you were alive!

If we're using applied while alive as a guide, burial might be the worst on account of duration...

I can't explain it either, but I'm the total opposite of you. My body will be trash, do whatever with it. Compost me, who cares. My spirit will live in the memories of others, which is why the things I do and say now are important. Hofstadter explains this concept of self, spirit, and memory in I am a Strange Loop: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_a_Strange_Loop

We just need a nice term, like Cremation. If we said “we just need to toss the body in a furnace and light it on fire”, we’d get equally squeamish.

Perhaps we should say “as long as we brecciate the body, it will biodegrade quickly”

That's purely cultural - sky burial is a thing in some parts of the world.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_burial For those that don't know the term

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