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[Criptfeind]

It's something that's vexed me (And I have no doubt others) for a while now. Personally I suspect that, depending on the nature of consciousness (ie whether or not it's a physical phenomenon or just an artefact/illusion created by sufficiently complex data processing), it's either utter oblivion or a sort of pseudo-reincarnation where, from your perspective, next time a pattern appears that's identical to the pattern that made up "You" at the moment your consciousness winked out, you continue on. Not necessarily with your memories or anything that anyone'd recognise as making you, you. Just enough of a pattern that it could be said to be conscious. Also the odds of the full pattern appearing a second time is so slim it'd probably take multiple universe cycles (Assuming they happen) to occur.

The idea of reincarnation via Boltzmann brain is a very interesting one, too me especially so when extrapolated out to larger structures then a single person such as an entire observable universe. But even if it is possible I have sorta an issue with thinking of it as reincarnation myself because of the lack of connection between "me" and any other "me"s created by this effect. Even if I never existed, the accumulation of these patterns would still happen and the "reincarnations" would still come into existence. And indeed over all there would be nearly infinitely more "reincarnations" of people that never actually existed then there would be of people that actually existed. Can it really be said that someone is a reincarnation of me, even if they are exactly the same, if my existence never had any bearing on theirs? I can't really logically answer that question with a no (or yes). But it bothers me to say yes to it at least.

Anyway outside of this sort of thing, what I think happens when you die, is that your body starts to rot and eventually gets buried underground or burned, or sometimes eaten. I'm personally hoping for eaten but suspect I'll just get cremated.

[Great Order]

Hence the "Depends on the nature of consciousness".

If it doesn't actually exist as a phenomenon and is in fact illusory, then you don't actually exist but your brain has tricked itself into think you do. Thus you can be "reincarnated" (Although theoretically there's situations other than Boltzmann brains which could lead to it, it really depends on where the threshold of consciousness is. (And thinking about it it could be that literally everything here is just me hallucinating up some world. Every time the pattern dies it gets reincarnated as another Boltzmann brain however long in the future, continuing the hallucination in what is, from my perspective, a sensical and continuous world. But worrying about such solipsism is pointless because I couldn't affect it regardless)) because there's no actual difference between the pattern existing in position A and position B. If it requires a continual process to exist though? That could present problems for the reincarnation idea.

[King Zultan]

When you die, you'll just wake up and go back to doing whatever it is that you do.

The Horror!

That moment you realize you've been dead and in hell the whole time and didn't realize it.

[Great Order]

There was the one where you die and wake up with a bong and a bunch of weird aliens saying "Dude, is it good?"

[hector13]

There was a bit in Rick and Morty in which there was a video game in which the characters live out the life of some dude.

Rick predictably doesn’t explain this to Morty, who plays the game straight, has a family, steady job at a carpet store, and then gets cancer, overcomes it and goes back to the carpet store, dies, gets a game over and is somewhat overcome by the realization it was all a game.

Rick is throughly unimpressed, and goes off the rails in his attempt.

I dunno I thought it was funny.

[scriver]

I don't believe in reincarnation of the psyche, or soul, as I don't believe in souls and believe that the psyche is made up of our bodies it can't keep on existing without our bodies.

I believe in physical reincarnation, though. When I die my body will lie in my grave and reincarnate into a million different things, worms, bugs, fungus, bacteria; whatever else eats my corpse. Then as they break me down into tiny little parts I will reincarnate into grass, trees, bushes. Other things will eat the bug-me or plant-me and I will become spiders, birds, and then predator animals who eat those, and so on – I don't need to lecture anyone on how the food cycle works – and maybe in many many years I will be incarnated into another human again, like I am likely the incarnation of many people before me, in some way.

It's why I don't like graveyards as they exist for us right now, with well cut lawns and little life. If I had a choice of how to be buried, I'd want to be buried under a tree, so the tree would would eat my parts and I would become it. Then those I leave behind could go to the tree and hang wreaths and flowers on it, like we do a headstone, and I would not be gone, not a cold, unanswering stone, I would just be part of something new.

Imagine if instead of the graveyards we have now we could have a forest, and we could wall from tree to tree and think "this is my father's tree, this is my grandmother's tree, and rhis is my grand-grand-uncles tree" and feel their bark and new life qs well as our own history and past in our very hands. I think that would be beautiful.

[Il Palazzo]

There's an old cemetery near where I live that's like that. Although not by design.
Used to be German before the war, and fell into ruin after most of the local populace was expelled. It might have seen some vandalism soon after, or maybe it's just time doing its thing. It's been close to eighty years after all.
Today it's all overgrown, blending with the surrounding forest, with trees everywhere and tombstones half-buried or upturned by roots. Writing barely intelligible. Ground is uneven. No pathways or fences remain.
It served a small village nearby, so it was always tiny. Maybe a dozen or two residents. With how it looks now, one can almost miss it passing by - if not for the occasional candle or two somebody still lights on some of the graves.
The city is expanding, though. It looks like it's already taken interest in what might soon be another neighbourhood, and is trimming some of the older trees. I don't know what will happen to it once there's nobody left to remember the people buried there. I don't know how cemeteries die. But I think I'd prefer the forest to the pavement.

[dragdeler]

Burial do be some weirdass mumification, they make the coffins more or less watertight dont they? Id much rather the worms have full acceess than to erode away by the inevitable fabrication imperfections slowly from one side gradually to the other.


Getting fed to the crows is based as heck.

[scriver]

Burial do be some weirdass mumification, they make the coffins more or less watertight dont they? Id much rather the worms have full acceess than to erode away by the inevitable fabrication imperfections slowly from one side gradually to the other.


Getting fed to the crows is based as heck.

I don't think that is the case at all, at least not here I'm Sweden. Most graves are refilled within the initial period of time after burial here because when the chest breaks down the ground sinks into it and forms a small pit or ditch and that looks bad, so they fill upp with more ground on top to make the ground even again.

[dragdeler]

Interesting because I did make a quick google check and apparantly modern caskets tend to be built even airtight

I have a theory that there might be something entirely different at play here that might cause such differences:


You throw a banana peel away in iceland, it's going to be there for quite a while, you throw a banana peel away in a climaxed rainforest it might be gone by the evening.


Actually I got one more! Since the frost penetrates deeper into the ground, maybe that fragilizes the coffins faster?

[Great Order]

You might like how my dad was buried. We, as per his wishes, buried him in a cardboard box (Well, cardboard coffin but you get the picture) with a field maple sapling planted on top.

I do like the idea of my body and its nutrients being brought back into the ecosystem though. On the other hand, I'd also like to have myself fossilised. When I die I need to ask to be buried under anoxic sediments.

[hector13]

I’d like a sky burial. Leave me on a mountaintop for the birds to eat me.

[scriver]

You might like how my dad was buried. We, as per his wishes, buried him in a cardboard box (Well, cardboard coffin but you get the picture) with a field maple sapling planted on top.

I do like the idea of my body and its nutrients being brought back into the ecosystem though. On the other hand, I'd also like to have myself fossilised. When I die I need to ask to be buried under anoxic sediments.

My microplastics will live firever

[King Zultan]

Burial do be some weirdass mumification, they make the coffins more or less watertight dont they? Id much rather the worms have full acceess than to erode away by the inevitable fabrication imperfections slowly from one side gradually to the other.


Getting fed to the crows is based as heck.

I don't think that is the case at all, at least not here I'm Sweden. Most graves are refilled within the initial period of time after burial here because when the chest breaks down the ground sinks into it and forms a small pit or ditch and that looks bad, so they fill upp with more ground on top to make the ground even again.

If I remember right that's caused by the weight of the dirt crushing the coffin, and dirt settling.

[delphonso]

I’d like a sky burial. Leave me on a mountaintop for the birds to eat me.

This, but the pigeons in new york.