I’m reminded of 1984, in a quotation I’ve had occasion to post before:
‘You do not exist,’ said O’Brien.
Once again the sense of helplessness assailed him. He knew, or he could imagine, the arguments which proved his own nonexistence; but they were nonsense, they were only a play on words. Did not the statement, ‘You do not exist’, contain a logical absurdity? But what use was it to say so? His mind shrivelled as he thought of the unanswerable, mad arguments with which O’Brien would demolish him.
‘I think I exist,’ he said wearily. ‘I am conscious of my own identity. I was born and I shall die. I have arms and legs. I occupy a particular point in space. No other solid object can occupy the same point simultaneously.’
And like Woody Allen, I would prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.
I’m reminded of Thomas Metzinger’s book “Being No One,” which argues that the self is essentially an illusion.
With this in mind, perhaps another option is: “I am no one, and thus was never born and will never die.”
I’m reminded of 1984, in a quotation I’ve had occasion to post before:
And like Woody Allen, I would prefer to achieve immortality by not dying.
This statement is self-contradictory as as its opening ‘I’m reminded’ implies that ‘I exist’.
Or everyone?