[ExI] Fear of Death

[Lee Corbin]

Jef writes


> Lee wrote:
> 
>> > Fear death or not; that wasn't the point.
>>
>> Well pray tell, then, what exactly was the point? 
> 
> The point that elicited your evasive reply was, as I stated earlier,
> not your fear of death but your apparent reluctance to consider
> seriously expanded concepts of personal identity that might deny you
> previous sources of comfort against the fear of death.

This is very confusing!  On the one hand, you say that "the point...was
not your fear of death" but by the end of the sentence you are saying
"your reluctance to consider concepts that [would] deny you
comfort against the fear of death".  My word!  How am I to
follow such a sentence?

You adamently maintain that the issue is NOT my fear of death.
Okay, I stand corrected.  I had mistakenly (not evasively!) 
read you as---like in the first part of your tortured sentence
above---suggesting that I did have a pronounced fear of death.

Okay.  Now that's settled:  the *point* was not that I have
a fear of death.  Okay.  Now the point evidently *is* that
I won't entertain concepts of personal identity that
give me comfort against the fear of death.

Ow!  You are making my head hurt!    How can I entertain
concepts that don't give me comfort from my fear of death
if I don't in fact have much fear of death? 

> Rather than respond to the assertion, you denied the consequent.
> 
> Kinda like the following:
> 
> Mary:  "Mike, it seems as if carrying that handgun helps you
> compensate for feeling somewhat impotent in a dangerous world."
> 
> Mike: "No way!", fondling the long, hard barrel of his gun, "On the
> contrary, I feel more powerful than almost anyone else I know."

Now this guy evidently *does* want to feel more powerful than
others. (Analogous to me not wanting to fear death?)  But it's
ironic because he just said "On the contrary" to the suggestion
that he's feeling impotent and wanting to compensate for it.
That guy, yes, is not understanding the words or is being
inconsistent.

I don't see how that applies to me. I have consistently maintained
that I'm not especially afraid of death (at least in the strong sense that
many people are).  Therefore the characteristic of cryonics and 
uploading and other nice things that might save me are not dealing
with any fears I have, per se, but rather (as I mentioned) are analogous
to some greatly greatly expanded benefit that I don't want to miss out
on.

Lee