Mark Twain: “I was dead for billions of years before I was alive, and it inconvenienced me not in the slightest”. 😀

Mark Twain is an idiot, you can’t be dead before you have been alive.

Oh dear. “Mark Twain is an idiot”. Oh dear oh dear oh dear…

I have kids and worry greatly about what kind of world they are going to live in when they are grown up. That scares me.

But then I think there is no point worrying about things you cannot control, and focus on having fun and doing the best I can for them while I can. Nothing else matters at the end of the day.

Mark Twain is an idiot, you can’t be dead before you have been alive.

If you’re not alive you are clearly dead.

I bet you can’t tell the difference anyway.

It was the “is” that made me despair…

I almost lost the will to live. 😆

If you’re not alive you are clearly dead.

Clearly this isn’t true at all.

pypdjl – Member

I’ve come close a couple of times, nothing to be scared of you pussy.

He said scared of death, not scared of being close to it!
Bless.

Clearly this isn’t true at all.

Explain how not existing prior to existing differs from not existing after existing.

Probably more proof that STW is only a place to ask a serious question if it is about a bike.

+1 certain subjects are not for the usual tomfoolery and joshing IMH
OP i suspect many parents a re scared of leaving their children behind..partly for thier kids and partly for themselves. We want to see them as adults and see our grand kids etc. i am more scared of outliving them if I am honest bit never dwell on this as cougar notes better to not spend the short time we have here worrying about the inevitable.

Re mark twain Clearly there is a qualia to being alive that will be lost when dead – tautolgy but cant think of a better way of describing it. Dieing is different from never having existed. Imagine me stealling your bike there was time when you did not have it and were happy so why so sad now when nothing really has changed apparently. You wont notice being dead i assume is Twains point which is correct

Twain was being clever. The statement is interesting precisely because his use of the word “dead” is not the way it’s used normally. 99.9% of people would say that, as a matter of semantics, being alive is a necessary step before you start being dead. The practical difference between being pre-alive and being post-alive is, he contends, nil. But that doesn’t mean “dead” is the right word for the pre-alive bit. 🙂

Is there a word for pre-alive?

I know where the OP is coming from, having a condition that statistically has a 5 year expectancy, and I’m 2 years into it – but then I’m not a person to follow the statistical curve I hope!

Got a 10 year old son and want to see him into adulthood, his future is mostly provided for now, I’d just like the enjoyment of seeing him enjoy his life growing up.

Having a long term, ultimately fatal condition means each day is taken individually, and enjoyed. Any day that has lacked a purpose or enjoyment for me is usually a day where I’ve let situations or other people influence me too greatly. But I don’t live everyday like it is my last, I’d be in a bloody asylum by now if I did.

well I use the word Zombie for the living dead but i have no word for the pre-alive

“unborn”, perhaps?

As in “to make the world a better place for one’s unborn children”.

In Twain’s construction, I’d sort-of prefer just “wasn’t” instead of “dead” if I wanted to avoid the controversy. 😉

I was just reading the deaths column in the newspaper and thinking it’s wonderful how people die in alphabetical order………..

Dieing is different from never having existed.

Exactly, there are an infinite number of people that have never existed, and only a finite number of dead people.

You wont notice being dead i assume is Twains point which is correct

Presumably. Strictly speaking no-one actually knows this for certain.

I was just reading the deaths column in the newspaper and thinking it’s wonderful how people die in alphabetical order………..

And chronological order.

I was just reading the deaths column in the newspaper and thinking it’s wonderful how people die in alphabetical order………..

Not so wonderful if you are Mr. Aardvark…

Frankly i’m shit scared of it.

Just cant get my mind around the concept of nothingness – not even silence or blackness or mental state like sleep. Just nothing…i am typing these words just now but trying not to think about it because if i start to think about too much it i get a total headfuck that will last for hours!

The good news is when you get close to the abyss it looks quite welcoming.

Some brave comments on here from covert and missingfrontallobe. Personally, I’m quite frightened of dying and death; for my loved-ones and for myself. Most acutely for my parter, who has cancer. It’s really not clear if she will survive it at this point, nor the extent of the ordeal. And that’s quite terrifying for us both.

buzz-lightyear – Member
Some brave comments on here from covert and missingfrontallobe. Personally, I’m quite frightened of dying and death; for my loved-ones and for myself. Most acutely for my parter, who has cancer. It’s really not clear if she will survive it at this point, nor the extent of the ordeal. And that’s quite terrifying for us both.

Buzz, having heard my wife talk at a conference on wednesday about my condition then it is often the carer who bears the brunt of the worry and fears, especially when there were widows of brain tumour sufferers in the audience and who in effect represent her future. Scary, but having nearly died back on the day of diagnosis I’ve sort of come to terms with the fact that death happens, and it will be much harder for those left behind to deal with.