Death, Sleep, Acts, and Intermissions

Death & Sleep

Lately I've been thinking about the similarities between death and sleep. When I go to sleep at night I disappear. My neural storm is still quite active, but the essence of me, my consciousness is gone. I do not exist. Isn't this exactly what death must be? A lot of people think that when they die, if they don’t go to an afterlife they imagine that there will be eternal, cold darkness. This is most likely not the case. When you’re dead, you will not exist, just like when you are sleeping.

I see the wall between death and sleep crumbling. We do not fear going to sleep. Yet, we fear death. Perhaps it’s because of what comes before the moment of death. Pain. Suffering. Torment and anguish. Perhaps these things that precede death is what we are actually afraid of.

Death personified - The Grim Reaper

Imagine a future, where we can turn off our pain receptors off as we wish. At the moment of death, or maybe seconds or minutes before, we can turn our pain receptors off. In a future like this, which I think is technologically possible, death will be exactly like going to sleep. In a future like this, what would death mean to us as individuals? Trivial, perhaps. If the technology of mind uploading and backups were to exist, death would mean nothing but an unexpected nuisance. You were walking down the street and got hit by a passing bus. You calmly think ‘dam bus’ as your body gets shredded and your head goes flying off onto the road side. You close your eyes, just like you’re going to sleep. And soon you awake in your backup morph. It’s a fresh new day. Let’s start living again!

Death will be nothing but an extended sleeping session. Waking up after death will be like going to sleep and waking up the next morning. Just like we always do.

Acts & Intermissions

With death and sleep no longer differentiated, I think I’d like to call the time I am awake and conscious as Acts, and the time I don’t exist, when I am unconscious, as Intermissions. Like a play. One unbroken thread of conscious stream is an Act. The moments for when I don’t exist, an Intermission. Though getting rid of Intermissions entirely would be quite a new experience worth aiming for, do not worry about the occasional Intermissions you might have to go through. Sleep, death... they're just that. Intermissions. That's all they are.