The 4 stories we tell ourselves about death | Stephen Cave
Вставка
- Опубліковано 11 гру 2013
- Philosopher Stephen Cave begins with a dark but compelling question: When did you first realize you were going to die? And even more interestingly: Why do we humans so often resist the inevitability of death? In a fascinating talk Cave explores four narratives -- common across civilizations -- that we tell ourselves "in order to help us manage the terror of death."
TED Talks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.
Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at www.ted.com/translate
Follow TED news on Twitter: / tednews
Like TED on Facebook: / ted
Subscribe to our channel: / tedtalksdirector
I'm going to miss all you guys when you are gone...
so you are planning on staying here ha??good for you
I can't leave until my student loans are paid off.
Waltham1892 That hints at immortality. It takes forever!
@@Waltham1892 smashed it
Damn
"Death is not an event in life: We do not live to experience death." True, death is not an experience. Dying is an experience. It is that moment when you realize that their is no turning back, that you are leaving everithing behind. It's the moment you say good bye to life and everithing you loved or hated. That short moment is real and experienceable and can be really frightening or peaceful.
the thing is your are not gonna continue living to remember that moment, so there is no moment at all
@@felipeherrera6507This could be said about life as an entire, is it not?
Unfortunately that "moment" can last several months, or even years..
Death smiles on us all, all we can do is smile back.
There is no death. There is no life. Its all a fuckin illusion. All made up.
The Gladiator...
could you explain
@abdel k Fire and injuries are illusions too. Think about it like this - computer games are not considered "real", but if you jump off the cliff in them, your character most likely gets injured or killed anyway. Does that make them real now?
@@cyberdaemon Pseudo-intelligence wont get you laid buddy
I fear death, I've had so many nightmares where I have actually seen myself being buried and I see my family crying. I fear the loneliness, the thought that my life will not be remembered and that all the things I have done will disappear. I'm 14 years old I have so much anxiety because of death.
I do to... Someone help
do shrooms
+Javier Reyes when you grow you 'll get used to these thoughts and you ll learn to live with them !
+Javier Reyes Death is cool. It motivates you to do work. Spend everyday living to develop yourself and change your thinking. Change your thinking, change your actions, change your actions, change the world. We live by labels, and everything is perspective. Beliefs are beliefs. Be aware of yourself. Do personal development. You will get much out of life, and it is practical. BE OPEN MINDED (with a little bit of skepticism of course) :) You are a machine. Change the way you operate.
+DARk dark
There's never been any space missions,no-ones ever left the Earths atmosphere and there are no real photo's of a globe as they would have you believe only cgi or paintings from years ago.Look it up on youtube and you will see the truth,hope this helps and you can then find your true path.
It's funny because the child version of me was desperately demanding of logic and reasoning. So at just nine I proclaimed myself an atheist and explained away most of the bible and other holy texts as the misinterpretation and misunderstandings of the human mind, in a time far less intellectual than our own. So from that time forward I called myself an atheist. But as I've grown and continued to study the universe, biology, astronomy in general, etc, and have met some of those brilliant people, I think it's just as equally foolish to denounce everything. Because the truth is, we just don't know. There could be this we can't even comprehend. Do I believe we die and go to heaven? No. Do I claim to have any idea whatsoever as to what may happen? No. But conciousness.. When you truly look at life, and the world, and the universe, it feels magical. There's something very special about conciousness. It's a gift. Even if sent by no one. I still consider it a gift. And I hope that gift has deeper meaning and other levels.
But it doesn't....
Yes, we might be unable to fully understand the universe and what we call reality. But there's one certainty about what you said: "meaning" is a concept that only makes sense inside our minds. Hence, talking about "deeper meanings" is an absurd. It's all inside your mind.
Just because consciousness feels magical doesn't mean it is. That's human bias.
@@superduperfreakyDj You seem to get it.
Jesus is alive & saves
Kashara Johnson I respect your right to express your opinion. But please know that you are wrong. 😆
When you're dead you wont care, it's that knowledge of impending death that's the tough part.
It’s scary that I won’t even know, no brain or body to even exist anymore
Lol, in a very literal way, this existential dread about death is worse than actually being dead.
I don't think people fear death per say, they fear that death can over come one at any given moment. Death doesn't have a stop mechanism. It can come to you when you're most enjoying life and it can come to you at your lowest point in life. You can be young or old. It can come to you in your sleep, while you're watching the television etc. etc. Everyone wants to live (except some i guess), we want to be happy, fulfill our lives to the maximum...what is truly scary is dying while you're enjoying it the most. Life doesn't have to end at old age...and that is scary indeed.
+electraNOIR I've never really feared for my life in the same intensity that I've dreaded the moments when I'll lose the close ones around me. I figured it would be an experience that will end me as well, but I didn't and now it seems like that's the worst thing that could have happened, the world just kept spinning. Not knowing when it's gonna happen is something we are fortunate with.
I think he's talking about the fear of what happens at death, it is 'natural' , as he says, to fear this, because the self not existing is inconceivable in our brains. Fear of death 'coming at any moment' falls under this umbrella too. Because if you don't exist , happiness as we know it in this physical reality doesn't exist either....it's not about losing what we have here (surely we all know that any physical joy or material is temporary) it's about what happens out there, in 'the void'.
I don't fear death itself. I mean I probably do, but I see it in a different way. I happen to have extremely high logic intelligence, and what I actually fear is that when I'll die, I won't be able to think anymore. I'm not scared of losing everything, everyone around me, of disappearing. I'm scared because the idea of death blows my mind; and my only power is my mind.
miner Quarantedeuxtrentesix I think when you die though, nothing (physical) exists so therefore you have nothing to think logically about anymore. If you do believe that you are something other than your mind, then you have no reason to fear losing that mind.
Personally I believe that we already know and are everything, the only thing that blocks us from that is our physical body...so at death when we lose our physical body we return to that place of all knowing, everything-and-nothing-at-the-same-time place. I know that sounds new agey, but if you think about it like that it should make you feel a lot more relieved....youre not going to lose anything, youll feel a lot better and have a lot more freedom actually when you are no longer limited by your body.
Lisa S. Ik dude, but you seem to forget it's now we're scared, not afterlife.
Here we see the reason why philosophers never get invited to the cool parties.
Arguably the people who think about this stuff have the best drugs 😉
Well i think this one is quite optimistic
Modern version of immortality stories:
7:06 elixir -> stem cells, genetic engineering
8:14 resurrection -> cryonics
9:36 soul -> upload your mind to a computer
10:26 legacy ->
14:04 life is like a book
TheDayYouLeaveThisPlanetNobodyWillNotice
God notices when a sparrow falls, the Bible says; how much
more do we matter to God, it also asks. The implication is very, very much.
SHUT UP
i came to here from bones track
Absolutely true I bet 3 ppl will notice maybe Im gone .I bet my cats will miss me tho 😻
SESH
who else is here at 1am trying to find a way to stop fearing death :)
Its exactly 1am and yes
Wow exactly the same
Yes
1:14 and yes
At 1:03 am sleeping with my deepest fear
I remember when I was younger, around 8 years old, I would lay down to go to bed and inevitably my mind would wander off to the question of what happens when we die and why do we have to die. I remember one particular night, crying, my mom tried to comfort me and she asked what was wrong and I told her that I was afraid to die and I asked why we have to die. Unfortunately, that might be one of the few questions that our mothers truly can't answer. Those thoughts kept my awake quite often and to this day I still fear having those thoughts as I lay down to sleep. Thankfully, I generally can stave off those thoughts by thinking of other things. There is nothing I can do about dying, it will happen, when I don't know, but I know I can't harp on such ideas. It is simply a waste of energy.
Death doesn't concern me, dying does.
When we understand what death really is, the fear simply dissolves. And when we feel like we've basically accomplished what we've come here to do, some of us even look forward to it: a blissful rest before the next go round. Cheers.
Aleksandar Filipovic are you stupid?
Aleksandar Filipovic "The wise reserve its pearls of wisdom for the few elect, who recognize their value and who wear them in their crowns, instead of casting them before the materialistic vulgar swine, who would trample them in the mud and mix them with their disgusting mental food"
Open-minded Skeptic what next round exactly? Thanks
Next round? U stuiped ?
So basically: All of your coping mechanisms are illusionary. Now, have a great day!
...But maybe that was unfair, thanks for the inspiring talk. Now excuse me while I lie in bed staring at the ceiling for an hour.
We are all made with such intentionally and purpose. There is so much detail put into every person. Every cell, every organ in your body has a function and purpose in being there. We can look around and see the beauty of nature and the miraculous world God created. I encourage you to put your faith in something greater than yourself, not because you are scared of dying, but because you can trust that we were not made in vain.
I don't think about death as the worst thing, just the last. It's the end of all, thus the end of all good in my life, thus the end of all bad in my life. It's only bad for the people who love you and you leave behind.
I agree, and as a cashier who always answers "I could be worse" when asked how I'm doing, I've found many people don't share that belief.
there is nothing after you die of course its just like being asleep forever or like how you were before you are born just nothing forever if you think there is something then you are the problem that nothing is being done to fix this there is no god there is no heaven its not fair to die just because you get old
CrossfireTV I don't think it's a problem that people are accepting false tales that they believe they will prevail upon death. It's comforting for people, and quite rational when you consider the fact that death is terrible, and everyone has to deal with it personally, and had to wonder where grandpa went, or where the dog went. It's a unique topic in that everyone is affected by it and everyone has strong personal feelings about it.
What IS a problem is that I'm typing up a reply to a UA-cam comment at 4am.
I hate it because it is painful
Confronting death means confronting the fact that your conscious experience has an end. That we don't experience death is precisely the point -- our experience comes to an end, and therein lies the horror. The speaker's analysis is a kind of sophism; his response to denial of death is to deny that the end of experience matters, which is a denial of death.
He doesn't deny death. He denies that death is an experience. There is an old philosophical question: when is death bad? Surely it can't be bad for me now, because I am alive, yet when I am dead, I will not be here for it to burden me (assuming there is no suffering after death). I think he was touching on something more like this.
"I will not be here for it to burden me."
Death is bad precisely for that reason. It may be an old philosophical question, and I grant that it's helpful in analyzing what death is, but ultimately it fails to grapple with death objectively. It approaches death subjectively, not so much asking "Is death bad, and if so, when?" or "How is death bad?" but "When is death subjectively experienced as bad?"
The answer to the third question is "in life." In life we anticipate death, which can be an extraordinarily bad experience. But the answer to the first two questions is: yes, death is objectively bad whenever it occurs, not because the one who dies has a bad subjective experience, but because it entails to cessation of his very ability to experience.
It's like the old question, "If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?" The answer is that, yes, a tree falling in the forest makes a sound, because there is an objective reality even if there's no one to experience it. Death too is an objective reality, even though no one really experiences it. It is an objectively bad thing, because it is the destruction of all that could possibly be called "good" in life: relationships, philanthropy, pleasure, philosophy, consciousness, curiosity, learning, and so on.
Anyone who falls upon the subjective to deny the objective horror of death is it seems to me using a lot of words to affirm the obvious - "hey did you know that the cessation of subjective experience isn't a bad experience?" - while ignoring the objective reality, which tends to be where the existential horror lies.
Damien Cross All of that, Damien, is assuming atheistic materialism - that the answer to the question, "What is a human being?" must be answerable in terms of material "stuff" alone. In that case, death is emotionally and rationally horrific, because the dissolution of the body is the destruction of all that is human, and therefore of any perceived good. This helps explain why theism and soul theories are so widespread in human history: without it, human beings have to learn to love human experience knowing it's an inexplicable spark of beauty, coming from nothing, and going to nothing.
Jonathan Cariveau Life is purely a subjective experience. To say there is an ominous objective overseer is to place faith in a supreme being, which I don't think is what you were going for.
Jonathan Cariveau And also, existentialism is one's subjective concern with their OWN existence. How can something objective be considered existential? Can we say that something that is objective lacks conscious thought? You used an example of a tree. A tree is a living organism, true, but is it self-aware? No, most likely not. So how can something, lacking self-awareness, be existential?
Absolutely excellent talk.
I just realize that I will be dead eventually and my consciousnesses will disappear in oblivion few days ago, and I thought about it, and I start to fear. I fear death, I terrify death
+Edward Your consciousness didn't exist for billions of years and it didn't bother you at all.
***** I know...I know that my whole body is only a bunch of atom combine, my emotions are just chemical or physical reaction between some chemical blablabla
***** But that still doesnt convience me from afraid of death
+Edward
When you find God you won't fear death.
+ash wednesday That's exactly what this video is about. And I rather keep that fear in my heart
sesh
Death will come to us all.When we are dead our body will not move,our
eyes cannot see,our ears cannot hear,feel no pain,no
nothing..........but as people call it soul or spirit is that lives on
and we go somewhere else and we live on just in a way we here cannot
imagine......i guess it is just something brand new totally different
once we pass...but seriously who am i to know?We will not know until it
happens......maybe death is just the very end and nothing after who
knows.Live your lifes..dont think about death we will die one day so
whatever.
SŦAREX SESH
Thedayyouleavethisplanetnobodywillnotice
sesh
S E S H
What a revelation!!! Thank you sir for discussing this complicated subject so brilliantly
Interesting. take, and I have to say I like it, but I like to think of it like this (and as a disclaimer I will say that these thoughts have been thought by MANY, MANY people before be). We as humans like to attach ourselves to intangible thoughts, feelings, memories, and predictions of future events. I think the key in overcoming the fear of death is to realize that these are indeed intangible. They don't exist! All that exists is the here and the now, which is in a state of constant flux. When we overcome the notion that the thoughts, feelings, etc are us, we can overcome the fear of dying. To do this requires an enormous amount of mindfulness. Observe your intangibles. Acknowledge them as they randomly pass by, and they will slowly become quite humorous. You realize you are just an essential part of the whole interchange of matter and energy--a piece of the puzzle if you will. One day you will dissolve, and that is okay; humans are impermanent just like everything else!
Ask yourself this: would immortality even be a good thing??? Think about how long eternity is for crying out loud! I think I would be bored after the first thousand years, much less 10^10,000 (which when divided by infinity is still zero). Reincarnation is really the notion that we ARE a process in the universe which has become self-aware. Since we are all part of the same system (call it the great self or whatever you want), we are all incarnations of it. In essence, the universe has become self-aweare countless times, each in a unique life, some with multitudes of suffering and some with profound joy. There is nothing mystical about this, nothing profound. It's actually so simple! I think reincarnation is so misrepresented in the west and it's a shame; it is the universe which brings new life, not someone being reborn...
Damian- I heartily and intellectually concur.
I think I know what you mean. I have had moments when I am sure my sense of self in an illusion. In an ultimate philosophical sense I can't be sure that I am not a new person who inherits the memories of yesterdays person. If I woke up in your body and brain with your memories I would truly be you. Surrender your individuality and soul and what is left is the universe itself. We are all the universe experiencing itself from all our points of view simultaneously. This fills me with compassion and my fear of death drifts away with the breeze. But the feeling never lasts, my vanity returns and I want to hold on the things that make this particular person who they are.
rawnukles Yea along those lines...Although we have the same memories that we had when we were children, could we say that we are the same person as we were when we were children? If not, is the child dead? This thought experiment is how I overcame my fear of death.
Exactly, you are way ahead of the archaic ideologies this guy is speaking of....it's actually not an interesting take at all, he is stating the obvious. I was hoping for some new ideas to think about but he only talked about the already well known wrong ideas about afterlife....waste of time really.
Also, according to the theory he cites, "Terror Management Theory," his constructed worldview of seeing death beyond the chapter of life, is also a tool to minimize anxiety. Again, the problem of his argument lies in the premise of wanting to escape death rather than dealing with it. His is yet another story of death: minimize anxiety by finding personal value in self-expansion (learning + organizing a worldview for comfort).
It's just amazing how he can manage in a simple way the fact that we are going to die, and not only that, in a very wisdom and easy way he tell us that we can certainly live without what he described as "bias". Thanks a lot for sharing!
I'm not going to die - I'm going to live every single second of my life.
Layne Staley Nope - death comes after life - when I'm not longer here - so I'll be having none of it.
+Sun Turtle I'm not expecting some kind of magical life after this one - I'm just saying that I will never be dead - others may look at the corpse where I used to be and think that that is me an I am dead - but that corpse won't be me cause I won't exist anymore, so 'I' won't be dead.
I hate it when people spew nonsense like this: "Death is exactly the same as birth, we are just not here, aware, conscious of anything. Our consciousness didn't exist for billions of years before and we knew nothing of it before we were born."
Correct, EXCEPT...before we're born we had no understanding of life, no understanding of what it means to love, to think, to believe, to create, to taste chocolate, to hear Mozart, to climb mountains, to laugh, or to hold a baby. Once you experience all that life can be it is nearly incomprehensible to think that you will not only lose all of what you experienced, but that you will not even have any memory of it. It's what drives some of us to religion seeking reassurance of an afterlife, or turn the rest of us into philosophers looking for meaning. And we are understandably terrified of losing the preciousness of life. That's why the argument that the absence of consciousness before and after life are comparable rings hollow.
and after we die we won't either
Just because you don't like the notion that all your experiences are "lost" when you die, doesn't mean it isn't true.
I think you're trying to argue my point, but you're actually making it for me. It's obviously true and that's why I said it. It's also true that that's the reason the average person who knows there's no such thing as an afterlife with imaginary beings is somewhat afraid or saddened by the fact that everything that has been experienced during a lifetime of consciousness will be gone.
Don't worry about it, you're not understanding the point at all. Read my response to someone else below if you want more explanation. Otherwise, let's leave it at we don't understand each other's logic.
I'm not sure why this is so difficult for some people to understand or admit. No one said anything about "worrying," that's as pointless as you say it is. Nor did I mention "anxiety," mostly because I'm not particularly anxious about something so inevitable. If you were told that you were going to have a part of your brain removed so you permanently couldn't remember anything that was precious to you, wouldn't know you had children and how deeply you loved them, erased all of your memories that made your life the amazing experience that you planned and struggled to create for yourself, how would you feel about it? And you knew it was coming years before it was done to you, so you continued to go on accumulating friends and lovers, experiences and memories, knowing it was all going to be taken away from you. Maybe the word "terrified" is what's bothering you, but are you telling me this isn't a sadness you don't understand? What do YOU assume is our motivation for leading a good life if not for the fact that others will be the ones to remember what we did after we die? And all of this is because we have consciousness NOW. The return to non-existence only doesn't bother beings with less-developed minds.
I have no fear of the act of dying itself. It's the HOW that makes me nervous. I don't fear death as that is an inevitable end result, but I dread not knowing how I will die.
So I guess you/we are reluctant about experiencing pain (emotional, physical) as we die, or as we become conscious that we die; not so much about being actually dead. The fear is rational if it is a fear of pain; because we know pain. But once dead, we no longer suffer, we don't miss, we don't feel regrets/sadness/longing. In that sense, the fear of death is irrational.
FreakyBo0o Exactly. I do fear the way I'm going to die, not the dying itself. The only thing I feel sad about it's about the others I left behind, but I understand the world goes on, so I try to do as much as I can while I still have time. I don't fear the "after" as I believe that when our brains die that's the end of our existence. Period. And yes, you are right. It is an irrational fear for people that have irrational beliefs. IMHO.
Hm. 'Death is a mountain taller to overcome for those that have to live with it than for those who cease to live by it.' Said that to my mum when she lost her mum recently.
Me, personally? I'm not afraid to die. I would just be sorely disappointed i didn't get to experience some of the stuff on my bucket list.
I'll pass on the immortality. Just want to live my story, and pass on the torch.
Yea eternity would get awfully boring, eh?
Damien Cross With this limited brain it would ;) Thats the point... It won't be so limited..
I love this talk! I came to the 5th way of thinking sometime in my teens and I would say I don't fear death anymore. I'll admit I sometimes fear associated things, such as falling and illness, but then it's not the death that I fear. It's the pain and suffering, which is just a part of life and therefore transient and hopeful.
Once when I was about 7 years old I was suddenly filled with deep thoughts about the nature of my own existence. I pictured myself coming out of my mother's "stomach" and thought to myself, "Did my existence begin with my birth on this planet?" I sensed very deeply that the answer to that question was no, I existed before I came here. As the decades have passed since then the evidence that that is true continues to only grow.
And here I am playing with Death, in Darksiders 2. :)
Truthfully its not death that's scary. Its the idea that once you die, you'll never even remember you ever lived. A physicist does not fear death. He fears time.
this is what i've been trying to explain to my friends. they all fear death and i never have. this probably has something to do with my depression, but i started seeing death as the end of my story and not as the tragedy or scary mystery long ago. and that idea has freed me to really LIVE.
Oddly enough I've had a concept of death since I very young age, even with no shock. It has always fascinated me, and never scared me.
I embrace it as the grand question of what it means, what happens, only to be answered after a journey, and a treat at the end of a good life (which I intend to live,).
_"The world is compounded of things subject to decay and decomposition, to the aggregates of matter, sensation, perception, mental formations and consciousness, which are incessantly rising and passing away. There is nothing else besides these perishing aggregates."_
-- Buddha
He confirmed the gut feelings I've had since childhood.
Sometimes I start panicking, thinking about death and this just calmed me down so very much.
Best TED Talk I've heard all year! Bravo!
“Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.”
-Eckhart Tolle
but your life not
"The only thing that matters is that you make it a good story"
Doesn't this mindset fall into the "legacy" category of coping?
Isn't he still grasping on to that idea that we can live on, through the "story" or "book" of our lives?
Depends. You're implying that the good story is for others to read or tell after your death.
But you can make your own life a good read for yourself. You alone are experiencing your story in all aspects/details. So why not making your story a fun experience?
@@georgvonrechenberg2217 yes. i just saw someone who's really close to me died few days ago. and i found your comment. now things starting to make sense again. thank you so much
@@donny9605 I'm really glad to hear that this helped you. I hope, you'll be able to enjoy your own story, too.
He is just saying that live to the fullest while you can without fearing death
His book theory of life might seem nonsense to some but still I quite agree with it (it's of course not a theory rather a life attitude). He mentioned the four immortality stories, what he tries to show is throughout history, people tend to hold these beliefs, he wasn't saying oh this and that is totally unrealistic or declaring he is atheist. What is truly realistic is Death, and it simply stands between us and something unknown, and people are just curious/afraid of it, and they want to surpass it. His point is trying to say what lies beyond this life is something unpredictable, what can be controlled is right now and right here. (well it reminds me of the song "living in the moment"......) Anyway, by talking about Death, he does spreads some positive energy.
I liked that at the end he tried to provide a remedy for the terror of death. Any yet, what of people who by unfortunate circumstances don't have many options to live a meaningful life? some people live incomplete novels
I'm not afraid of death at all, I just wonder what it is like.
No one can tell you. And you wont experience it. You will experience the time just before dying, but not in fact dying.
Dying and waking up is not dying. People might dissagree, but if you look up death in the dictionary you will see that they are wrong.
You die when your heart stop beating permanently.
Mozdk1
You die when your cerebral cortex (i.e. the seat of your consciousness) stops functioning permanently. People can continue to live after their heart stops beating, for example, if they have a heart transplant, LVAD, ECMO, or some other hypothetical device that may be invented in the future.
CenturyT Literal overload much? Your answer nearly killed me with boredom
there is nothing after you die of course its just like being asleep forever or like how you were before you are born just nothing forever if you think there is something then you are the problem that nothing is being done to fix this there is no god there is no heaven its not fair to die just because you get old
I'm agnostic and I dont fear death for one very simple reason: I'm grateful to be alive.
That last part was all I needed. Beautiful.
some powerful stuff, magnificent Ted Talk!!
the real problem is that an attempt at understanding death without using ANY psychological coping mechanism(which would be the least biased) is the most destructive of all and unhelpful. Just like looking at the sun without any protection or any lenses is blinding. If all humans throughout history really and truly and deeply believed that there is nothing after we die and that's it, then we wouldn't reach this stage of our civilisation anyway. We would have died out a long time ago.
I fear death not for the impact on my life, but for what impact it would have on those who care about me.
They will die too. Don't worry about them. We're all selfishly obsessed with our own deaths in some regard.
Im not really afraid either. But I'm certainly disheartened at times.
Excellent presentation,vivid and unforgettable ideas thank you
This is excellent, full of great insight---thank you for sharing.
My faith says ill go on to the.place I was destined to be. The scientific part of me says ill go back to being energy, since everything were made of can be found in the universe. But then the scary answer that I believe most of all, is "i dont know".
Death comes to whoever calls it.
I think there's one key flaw to this talk. The last statement that we should make our lives a good story was only added to end the speech on a good note, but in reality that's just the 4th type again, a legacy.
The real truth is that if the objective answer is correct and life has no higher scope, life can never really have any objective meaning or purpose. It can have subjective meaning in the moment, greater meaning in what we do within the span of our lives, and even greater meaning in what we add to humanity as a whole, but if we truly just die, then all of that meaning is contained within the scope of humanity itself, which is by this definition meaningless.
So if through the eye of objectivity, all four of these "stories" are cast aside as purely subjective and devoid of truth, there ceases to be anything in life worth caring about at all. It's true that it's human nature to seek out hope, and my nature makes buying into a story feel right, but having hope is necessary for the human mind to operate and for us to care about anything at all. There HAS to be a belief within me that there is some overlap between objective truth and subjective meaning out there. And thus I refuse to have no faith, because caring about the future is at the core of my being and without it I am nothing.
No, a good story is most enjoyable in the moment you're experiencing it. So, as long as you experience your story, try to make it an enjoyable/interesting/fun/whatever-you-like story.
And I really don't get why subjective meaning can't be enough. It may be... weird sometimes. But why can't stuff being precious in itself and not because of any acknowlegment by others or later times?
thank you for this! its so beautifully said. without the finiteness of life, there is no meaning to it.
Great lecture :) Thank you for this.
Such a magnificent talk.
I fear dying more than I fear death itself. The only thing I fear about being dead is not being here with my wife to see our children into adulthood. I want to know that my kids will fine without me and the best way to do that is to be here at least until they become self-sufficient.
the best philosopher I have heard speak about death and the exact topic your speaking about is Alan Watts. He's helped me come to terms with death and guilt and fear. Not totally but he has made me feel more at peace and quelled those worries
My book won't be an epic, nor a comedy. I'd like to think it becomes something of a series of interconnected short stories, each of which ends in a discovery, but also a question. I'm excited to see how it ends.
Beautifully analized, it perfectly fits the equasions.
I love this! Great talk :)
That was about the best TED talk I've heard.My own idea is that at death you cease to be, which I think is a rather lovely idea, and just as good or better than the idea of heaven, in which idea you continue. I don't much like the idea of dying,- as in the act of dying,though.
I am 76 and confined to a wheelchair. I know that death is inevitable but I'm not dead now and probably will not be tomorrow. So I do my best to live today to the full. My passion is learning and now with the benefit of the Internet. I can learn a about any subject, no matter how obscure. Life is precious, and not to be wasted
I hope this helps somebody
akanippy What is your main goal in life? you've acknowledged that sooner or later you will die, have you not pondered about the fact that there may be a higher purpose for your life rather than just getting by?
Rangahatimuhmon The fact that there COULD be a higher purpose has no truth value on the idea that there is one. Wishful thinking.
Life is a personal journey, you create your own purpose, whatever you want it to be.
Rand Ballance
The possibility of there being a higher purpose holds potential truth value. One must establish if there is a higher purpose then form a conclusion if there is any value. Until then, you cannot say the idea of a higher purpose has no truth value until you've explored all avenues.
You stated you create your own purpose.How self defeating. One is obliged to fulfill his purpose and then is nothing more after he fufills it. So why waste the time giving yourself a purpose to fulfill if you can just live without one so you don't need to fulfill anything.
Do you actually believe this whole universe which contains septillions of planets and stars came by accident or out of mere confidence?
I leave you with a verse from the Qur'an to reflect upon:
Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]? Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain.Or have they the depositories [containing the provision] of your Lord? Or are they the controllers [of them]?
surat At-Tur (chapter 52) verse 35
Peace.
Life is what you make it, and you can have more than one purpose to fulfill, assuming you even need one at all.
You have the right to believe in a higher power and I have the right not to. I don't believe in Allah anymore than I believe in Jesus, Zeus, or the tooth fairy.
You can devote your entire life to whatever God that you choose, but don't be arrogant enough to expect others to do the same.
I respect your belief and your right to believe it, and I wish you nothing but the best.
As long as everyone is treated equal regardless of their religious beliefs, then im fine with people worshiping Jesus or the Lochness monster. Rangahatimuhmon
Once I had an OBE (Out of Body Experience) I realized there is more to our Physical Lives then just the linear time we experience in the 3D World/Universe.
I have had many of these in the last 10 years....
I then went on to study this a bit more and found some answers in a couple of books written by Dr. Micheal Newton.
He wrote: 'Journey of Souls' and a follow up more detailed account named: 'Destiny of Souls'.
Also I read Robert Monroe's three books about his experiences.
(plus many other books from other authors and so forth too...)
These books were Eye Openers for me anyways.
I do not 'Fear Death' or even dying. I know within the fiber of my being that we are more than our 3D selves.
Out of body experiences can be induced by brain traumas, sensory deprivation, near-death experiences, dissociative and psychedelic drugs, dehydration, sleep, and electrical stimulation of the brain, among others.
Souls are just a cheap plot device.
Hey my name is Tim please read the Bible. seriously and don't rush it, the theme is Jesus from genesis to revelations.the soul is eternal but the body has been cursed to decay before that we were "immortal" this happened in the garden, the fall. but when jesus returns he will give us a new body. any way good day and dig deeper!
timmy atoyo Oh please. This is a channel for adults not childish fairytales.
Azureus9999 Look at near death experiences from people that are clinically dead, ie they have no pulse, no brain activity - nothing. Yet they will come back with vivid memories of this out of body experience, all having similar patterns that time becomes nothing.
***** If they were dead then they would not be 'near' death experiences. Because people who modern instrumentation and subjective appraisal consider to be dead are not actually dead does not mean woo woo is real.
He just quoted the Eleventh Doctor..... "we are all just stories in the end, so lets make it a good one"
An all encompassing message that needs to be freely spoken and shared. Traditions morph and change, to some extent, with each preceding generation. With great hope and fervor, the all important realities of this video will continue to be grasped and appreciated exponentially by the masses, ultimately, to become the norm. A pacifier may bring temporary comfort, but, does not provide an ounce of true nourishment, or sustenance.
we all have died before. what you will experience in death is the same experience you feel before you were born.
Another thing we tell ourselves
And you remember what you felt before you were born , before you had any memories ??
Kuti Szilard thats the point, you dont feel or remember anything in death.
lokustic Agreed. We will never experience death. It is like when you are sleeping (not in the rem sleep) , you are not aware of anything, not time, not place, not yourself...so why is death such a big deal?
It's paradoxical something which does't even exist is such a big deal indeed. There is no death. Or rather, there is the moment just before you die that you can experience, but not death itself. It's like going unconscious, we all had that before.
If it so, that we developed devices to deceive ourselves, why do we fear for the end of consciousness? The key issue is consciousness. Its essence is immortal. It can't understand its own death, which is life and awarness of life. The big problem which is not solved and can't be never solved by neuroscientists is that the consciousness is not limited to the life of the brain.
The human brain doesn't explain consciousness, too many things have no explanations. The brain it's just an instrument of consciousness. And there are many proofs for that.
Why do we want to live forever when it would be natural to accept death? Why consciousness can accept death when the reality of life seems unsustainable? When people see that life is cruel and commit suicide? Consciousness can't be convinced about what is natural. It's never rational, but it's not also natural as some philosopher might think. We create biases to limit consciousness to all that it's natural, to the activity of the brain and say that death is natural. Consciousness is not rational, is not irrational, is not natural. Consciousness is unnatural. This is the truth we don't want to grasp. Its explanations and origins are not in this world, in this nature. Think about it.
Autumn comes, the leaves fall and consciousness can see that death is natural in nature, nature lives in cycles. Just consciousness is a stranger in this picture, because it doesn't belong to it.
We created an artificial and false image of how consciousness exists: non-existence - a cover of birth and consciousness starts existing - the cover of death and non-existence of consciousness. Consciounsness is eternal, is just put in this nature for a while, between two covers of a life book.
You literally filled in the details of story 3: the eternal soul.
+Google Screen Name How is feelings and truth related , Is feeling good == not truth and feeling bad == truth ?
What proofs are you talking about?
You throw the concept of evolution out the door. Consciousness would naturally evolve to a point where it does not accept it's own death. Culture, identity and society all serve one evolutionary purpose : to procreate. It's the denial of death that let's us live insignificant, banale lives where we all chase one thing that being children. Nowadays we no longer have this mindset we have a YOLO mentality, more people are refusing to have kids because they want to enjoy their own lives free from the burden of children. Evolutionary speaking the realisation of one's own death is the worst thing that can happen as it stops almost all incentives for procreation.
That was bloody fantastic Ted talk!
brilliant, thanks for posting
My biggest fear is not existing. I hope that's not what happens after death.
Keep your mind open. You might as well. It'll help you to live in a more positive way. IMO of course.
Cal -_- Same, But we as ourselves didn't exist before, so it's going to be like never being born. I just want to become a ghost when I die.
lucy luu of all comments, your comment says exactly what I was feeling but didn’t know the words. Thank You 😊
This guy needs to have a chat with Aubrey De Grey
God this is depressing. Thanks for sharing your thoughts mate, really brightened my day.
This is excellent.
Here's a thoughtful reflection on why you shouldn't fear your own death. (Although it doesn't address the process of dying, which is probably what worries people most.)
Great share. I was mortified about death when I was a child. I'm less afraid now and try to enjoy every moment of life. After all, death rate holds steady at 100%. Cheers!
Death is not so terrible when you have my family.
Wonderful, wonderful and simply wonderful…
sesh
seriously glad i found this...
Explains a lot of stupid things we believe in!
I will have a legacy and a purpose when I die. My body will decay into the soil and I will nourish the ground and feed the earth. I will live on in the trees, in the birds and in the flowers of Spring.and Summer. My body will feed the insects which will feed the birds. The birds will sing and a part of me will be echoed out into the wild. I will live on in the one thing bigger than us all. Planet Earth. That my friends is why I have little concern over death or religion. I will live my life to the best of my ability knowing I will fuel future generations of plants, insects, animals and people when i'm gone.
Or more likely, you'll be created and your existence will have been meaningless.
Mat Broomfield existence is never meaningless
Hawken Valhalla This comment is beautiful. 💕
I have either always known I was going to die, or still believe I won't, because I don't ever remember having that "ah-ha" moment.
And while watching this really interesting talk, I found myself afraid, thinking, "Please do not debunk my beliefs!" And since we have no idea what will happen after our deaths, I think we should all console ourselves with our personal beliefs. After all, what other alternative is there?
such a great lecture! every word has a soul.
I'm 14 couldn't sleep cuz I was thinking about how many more fourth of July's I have, how many years I have in my life, what I will be when I grow up, who i will be when I grow up, I thought until my head and stomach started hurting I still don't feel well .-.
trevor vanhaitsma You'll learn to live with it. It's in your blood.
+trevor vanhaitsma You have at least 80 more years. Take it easy, kid :D
i can easily see the notion of a 'good story' justifying some incredibly bad decisions for the sake of a plot twist
From my perspective, one of the best talks.
The book analogy towards the end was interesting, although I'm to say that some people -- as hard as they try -- fall into tragedy; being a good book, nonetheless, I suppose. I find that people can learn to accept their own death, but become obsessed with the on-goings of life there-after: the lives of others, not themselves.
Something that terrifies myself isn't death, but emerging after death -- a continuing of a story non-wanted. So, becoming unconscious in a car accident, and waking with a brain injury and diminished capacities. That is frightening. That is, once one loses consciousness, the only thing to do is "wake up" in a sense. If under anesthesia, not waking up isn't horrible, but waking up with a complication definitely is.
im not afraid of death, I'm afraid of dying
Make sure you stay on the right side of the mafia then.
I guess I must be one of the lucky ones because, although I fear the thought of suffering, I do not feel afraid or even slightly uncomfortable at the thought of death. I do not care what happens to my body after I die. I do not remember when I became aware of my mortality. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
Same here, no recollection of my mortality. I'd say you're expressing a pragmatic attitude when you don't put much stress on death. I myself consider it pragmatic, and something which I hope helps me live in the now.
Remember that you and everything you experience around you is an illusion. Just a grossly oversimplified version of reality that your mind is capable of handling. Like looking at a plate full of millions of grains of salt...from very far away, it appears like one big pile of white stuff, you don't get to know each grain of salt in detail. What happens after death? I don't know, but I would bet on exactly what happens before you were born, nothing. It's just a click, and you're gone forever.
Your probably just not smart enough to understand death truly so it makes it easier to accept.
Really, one of the greatest speech I've ever heard!
09:15. Re: Cryonics: The thought of having my body frozen with thoughts of being brought back to life at a later time leaves me cold.
"They were all equally agnostic." No one is equally anything. Everyone has a slightly different interpretation and intensity toward any religious belief (or lack of), whether it be agnosticism or christianity.
you are right, but this does not affect the validity of the study's findings provided that the participants have been randomly (randomness defined as relative to participants' degree of agnosticism) selected to fall into each of the two groups.
BaltoMovie Yeah, you're right. I just didn't like the way he phrased it. He didn't have to include the word equally, he could have just said that they were agnostic. That would be less misleading
Most mammals are aware of death, and I'm sure other animals as well, such as the mourning of the diseased bodies by elephants, surrounding the body and guarding it. Humans are not the only one.
book analogy is great
I agree, I came to this conclusion at the age of 17 and I was very upset with my parents who had taken me to church very Sunday till then, I now live my book and look forward to my adventures as well as my rest at the end, the way I see it, you got 100 years to make a difference in this world, what will you do with your time
Exactly, death is never the end it is only one page of your story :)
This guy overlooked a key point in his skepticism concerning transfer of mind to a computer. Yes, consciousness is dependent on your brain, but the Blue Brain project has already successfully modeled 100,000 neurons of the human brain and is modelling more, with expectations that a complete simulation of the human brain will be ready in about 10 years or so. If a complete human brain can be simulated, then could not part of your memories be supported in such a simulation? I'm not saying it will happen, only that it could happen, and the evidence is indicative of this, though not conclusive. I don't put my hopes in it, yet I do think that to be open minded to all possibilities, we shouldn't overlook this and take it into consideration.
Best Ted talk I have seen
Such a great way to edm your speech! Thank you
End*
Once you agree and come to terms with yourself and stop lying to yourself. Recognize you are born into a losing battle and the battle is born to die to return to the earth. Once you agree to this life believe it or not just gets easier and you are not in control of life. Everyone is the same nobody is different at the end we are all equal and we all will have the same fate which is death. Just make the most of your short time in the cosmos. Where do you go from death well nobody knows and thats the fun about the unknown is that is finding out. Just like receiving a surprise present or getting that surprise promotion at work or developing a successful business. No one will ever know until it happens.
I can't even imagine being afraid of death I am really looking forward to it. I think the idea that people are afraid of death is overblown.
ear wax
No happiness, no sadness, just nothingness, speeding by infinitely fast. Either the end of everything or the perfect blank slate.
Well having come close to death 3 times so far I know myself very well. None of us asked to be born . It should not be assumed that we want to be here. It must be that lack of control that most people fear. I enjoy not knowing when I will die so I don't fear it.
You live you die don't blame me. Yes I have always been a very lucky person.
To say that our desires, thoughts and our mind is our real selves shows just how far thinking about something gets you.
Bravo, Mr. Cave.