It sounds like our utility functions match on this pretty well. For example, I agree that the past and future are not symmetric for the same reason. So I don’t think we disagree about much concrete. The difference is:
A lack of experience is not itself unpleasant, but anticipating it scares me.
This is very foreign to me. I can’t simulate the mental state of “think[ing] about [...] an endless void not even being observed by a perspective”, not even a little bit. All I’ve got is “picture the world with me in it; picture the world without me; contrast”. The place my mind goes when I ask it to picture unobserved endless void is to picture an observed endless void, like being trapped without sensory input, which is horrifying but very different. (Is this endless void yours, or do “not you” share it with the lack of other people who have died?)
you imagine someone is threatening to kill you now
you know you would experience fear
you realize your eventual death in 30-50 years is going to be the same now feeling as it is now
you realize fearing death now is the same as fearing it in the future
you realize if you not fear future death that would be the same as not fearing now, so are you saying you wouldn’t be scared sh*tless if someone tried t kill you now? or perhaps your imagiantion is failing, that would explain how you not see that future death is the same
I have a healthy fear of death; it’s just that none of it stems from an “unobserved endless void”. Some of the specific things I fear are:
Being stabbed is painful and scary (it’s scary even if you know you’re going to live)
Most forms of dying are painful, and often very slow
The people I love mourning my loss
My partner not having my support
Future life experiences, not happening
All of the things I want to accomplish, not happening
The point I was making in this thread was that “unobserved endless void” is not on this list, I don’t know how to picture it, and I’m surprised that other people think it’s a big deal.
Who knows, maybe if I come close to dying some time I’ll suddenly gain a new ontological category of thing to be scared of.
It sounds like our utility functions match on this pretty well. For example, I agree that the past and future are not symmetric for the same reason. So I don’t think we disagree about much concrete. The difference is:
This is very foreign to me. I can’t simulate the mental state of “think[ing] about [...] an endless void not even being observed by a perspective”, not even a little bit. All I’ve got is “picture the world with me in it; picture the world without me; contrast”. The place my mind goes when I ask it to picture unobserved endless void is to picture an observed endless void, like being trapped without sensory input, which is horrifying but very different. (Is this endless void yours, or do “not you” share it with the lack of other people who have died?)
you imagine someone is threatening to kill you now
you know you would experience fear
you realize your eventual death in 30-50 years is going to be the same now feeling as it is now
you realize fearing death now is the same as fearing it in the future
you realize if you not fear future death that would be the same as not fearing now, so are you saying you wouldn’t be scared sh*tless if someone tried t kill you now? or perhaps your imagiantion is failing, that would explain how you not see that future death is the same
I have a healthy fear of death; it’s just that none of it stems from an “unobserved endless void”. Some of the specific things I fear are:
Being stabbed is painful and scary (it’s scary even if you know you’re going to live)
Most forms of dying are painful, and often very slow
The people I love mourning my loss
My partner not having my support
Future life experiences, not happening
All of the things I want to accomplish, not happening
The point I was making in this thread was that “unobserved endless void” is not on this list, I don’t know how to picture it, and I’m surprised that other people think it’s a big deal.
Who knows, maybe if I come close to dying some time I’ll suddenly gain a new ontological category of thing to be scared of.