Re: CHAT: facing your own mortality (as a conlanger)

On Mon, 30 Jun 2008, li_sasxsek@nutter.net wrote:
> > [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On Behalf Of Mark J. Reed
> >
> >
> > Hey, now.  As a fellow atheist, I resent the implication that we
> > don't care what happens after we're gone.  That's a very selfish
> > attitude to take.  Just because I won't be around to observe the
> > fate of my family, descendants, and planet, that means I should
> > care less about it? Poppycock.
>
> Well this is starting to get in to the "no cross" territory, but the
> whole thing about leaving a mark on the world in the form of artistic
> works or even children are part of the thinking that they somehow
> make you immortal.
>
Theists have to be careful not to trespass into "no cross" territory (or
perhaps more correctly numinists).  My frivolous nature suggests that
atheists should be more careful not to cross into "no no cross"
territory.

My first intimation of mortality came when I was 35, seven years ago now
when I consulted a doctor.  Bladder control is an indelicate subject, a
reminder that I no longer have the immortality of youth.  At least I
can be grateful that my energy levels are still pretty good.

It is possible that Brithenig and the Bethisad project will outlast me.
The latter seems to be ascending to meme-hood.  I sometimes wonder if I
should allow it to do so.  Treading in No Cross Waters seeking
immortality in this world is a denial of the possibility of another
world.  In the other hand in a finite material universe perhaps the
best we can hope for is that once we existed.

Putting on an archivist hat (mainly paper, ephemera and artefacts) it is
so easy for records and documents to be lost.  They end up underneath
the bed, or the equivalent thereof; and the next generation places no
value on them.  Electronic records are even scarier.  We have no
guarantees for the survival of electronic records, their preservation
or access to them on the time scale that archivists would like to work.
I sometimes wonder if we should, the loss of records in the past must
be phenominal, and yet we create history, and I contribute to its
preservation.

/me removes hat.

- Andrew.

> Yes, it's a selfish attitude but actually so are all attitudes.
> Someone could also say it's selfish to want to leave a mark on the
> world after death when those who are still alive may want something
> different.  Even the so-called "giving" types are acting selfishly.
> Their rewards may emotional rather than material, but they are still
> acting in self-interest.


--
Andrew Smith  --  hobbit@griffler.co.nz  --
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html

"If you are gonna rebell you have to wear our uniform."

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