experimental quiz

[ninwa]

Your life is more important than other people around you, coz its ur own life.

My life is more important to me than one other stranger's, or  maybe even a few other strangers'. But the entire population of the world (not to mention the scientific progress etc. that /0 mentioned)? Hell no.

Then again I have a very hippy / Dumbledore-ish view of death - it's not some big scary gaping hole void of consciousness to me.

[Over9000]

Your life is more important than other people around you, coz its ur own life.

My life is more important to me than one other stranger's, or  maybe even a few other strangers'. But the entire population of the world (not to mention the scientific progress etc. that /0 mentioned)? Hell no.

Then again I have a very hippy / Dumbledore-ish view of death - it's not some big scary gaping hole void of consciousness to me.

I would have thought that ppl around my age would not have anything that they would deeply love enough to sacrifice their lives to protect, I know that say a mother with her children would give up her life for her children. But at my age, I dont think I have anything besides my parents taht I really would fear losing, well thats just my thoughts. Also for me, death is fuking scary, like 10 English exams at once scary.

[ninwa]

Would you sacrifice your life to protect your parents then? I'm sure a few of us do have people they love enough. I'd do it for my brother for one.

[vomit-inducing]and admin[/vomit-inducing]

[Over9000]

Would you sacrifice your life to protect your parents then? I'm sure a few of us do have people they love enough. I'd do it for my brother for one.

[vomit-inducing]and admin[/vomit-inducing]

Umm, I dono. For one id be too scared to sacrficie my life (im a weak person mentally) so I dont think id have the courage. To be honest, the earth destructs, humans could just go live on the moon and start the moonrace. Its not implied anyone dies.

What would be funny is if ur natural time of death is 1 year from now and u wasted eveyrones life for 1 year of ur own, that wud suk.

[/0]

Sciency student, option 2

Everyone will be trying to keep you alive

Yeah, they would probably keep you on life support in medical facility 100 metres below the ground.

[appianway]

I know this logic's probably flawed, but as the world that we perceive is constituted through our thoughts, our world ceases to exist once the thought processes that create it stop. This means that the world from the observer's point of view is essentially destroyed anyway: extending the life of the individual increases the duration of the world. Of course, it neglects the fact that destroying the external world will cut short the lifes, and hence worlds or others, but from the point of the individual concerned, it means that the 'world' (which is constituted through thought) last for longer.

[ninwa]

Yeah, that's the solipsist's argument (cf. altruists)

[EvangelionZeta]

Yeah, that's flawed in that it can basically be simplified to "I won't be alive anymore if I die now, and I won't be able to interact with the world.  If I die later, I can interact with the world longer but the world as a whole will be destroyed after I die."  Basically, it doesn't tell us anything profound/atypical of the usual selfish response to the question, unless you can justify why your individual world is more important than the external world+everybody else's individual world.  (:

Of course, if you take what appianway said to the next level (ie. what she's basically implied albeit not outright stated, or solipsism), then you have to justify that as a Philosophically sound or probable view. 

[QuantumJG]

death is fuking scary, like 10 English exams at once scary.

lol yep.

On a different note, ninwa if someone came up to you tomorrow and offered you the choice of dying right now or living your natural life and the Earth will destruct when you die would you seriously instantly pick the former? You may seem very noble to say that you would pick the former, but the fact is that most of us would pick the latter because deep down everybody is scared of death.

I wish people would stop criticising us for picking the latter. Your experiment is good in a philosophical sense (I love philosophical questions), but, to compare arts students to science students views on the matter is "stupid", this comparison is basically the equivalence to getting hairdresser's and mechanic's views on the topic or lawyer's and doctor's views on this topic (I could go all day picking people in different professions). this experiment is implicitly stating that what you do careerwise will alter your choice on a matter like this.

[ninwa]

1) If that person could give me sufficient evidence to prove to me that the Earth would in fact destruct (good luck to them), then I think I would say yes. Of course part of me is scared of death, but I would still rather that than living with the guilt of knowing everyone will die with me.

Can you imagine living that kind of life? Not trying anything slightly risky for fear that it might kill you? Doing everything you can to live as long as possible? I'd be afraid of driving, pissing people off in case they have "connections", eating unheathily, etc. A few of the things on my "bucket list" include going skydiving, travelling the world, and climbing a mountain - and I would no longer be able to do those things because they pose a risk to my life. What kind of life is that? I'd rather die.

2) Not once did I (or anyone who picked option 1) criticise you for your choice. (I think, anyway. If we did, sorry.) There are good things about either option:
People who pick option 1 would be sacrificing themselves for the greater good.
People who pick option 2 would be saving their loved ones a lot of pain.

3) It's an experimental quiz. Most experiments will pigeonhole people, whether it is according to height, weight, race, sexual preference, eating habits, etc. etc. This just happens to be pigeonholing according to your academic strengths.

I did state that I (and the person who originally came up with this) know this is a very, VERY broad categorisation. Obviously a whole load of other matters have influenced people's decisions.

[minilunchbox]

If I was asked this right now and it was an instantaneous decision, I would say to die later (which was my choice) because I honestly can't imagine dying. I just can't wrap my head around death and what does/doesn't happen after. Also I've been counting on the future to be awesome and to turn things around for me for so long that dying now would be such a waste. Well, I see that I am quite selfish.

But in the morning when I've actually thought about my choice and it's implications, I would probably freak out and off myself anyway. ~Whoops.

[Over9000]

Dying- you become a lifeless corpse, ur body no longer functions ur in an empty abyss for all of eternity, nothing to do, u feel nothing u do nothing, life is over. Thats ur choice if u choose death (at least from science view, religion is a different view, for each religion). Im choosing option 2 based on what I have just sed, if I knew that after I dieI could go to heaven like little nicky with those 3 chicks then I wouldn't mind dying, but I dont think thats highly probable.

Actually theres sumthing ive noticed, watching war like movies where u see heaps of soldiers sacrifice their lives and u see ppl die far too often sort of detracts from the utter sense of fear of dying. Watching movies like taht tends to make me feel that death, ehh, eeveryone seems to have it happen to them they dont seem scared, why shud I. But its only after sum1 close to u has died or more than 1 that u truly feel the fear of it. My grandad died last year and for over half a year I was in a state of depression worried about my death and anyone elses, anytime I saw a program about anyone dying or anything to do qwwith death, I wouldnt be able to sleep that night. Sumtimes I lay awake at night wondering what happens after death and I cant get to sleep after that, this is why I will always fear to death too much to readily accept it.

[TrueLight]

wait... so its our fault if the world destructs after we die?

[Over9000]

wait... so its our fault if the world destructs after we die?

No fukn way, we arent the ones blowing earth up since we wud just not blow it up and live, its the person who is pointing the gun at our head and asking us if we want to die and save earth or not.

[TrueLight]

well then ill just get a gun and kill him and the world would not blow up yay lol

and anyway how the fck will he blow up the world... doubt it lol