If you could push a button and simply cease to exist, would you press it?

i don't think i said anything warranting a flag post itt, but do what you've gotta do xxp

I'm on my phone can someone post a .gif of Michael Jackson eating popcorn, thank you in advance

I love this "I'm not even being a dick to you!" faux-innocent act followed by immediately being a massive dick.

Matt, please can you lock the thread. I'm deeply tired of this.

deeply

Yeah, from my perspective, I answered the question, thanks WCC for clarifying it had nothing to do with that wiki link, and any discussion seems to be hidebound by some bloke almost making a point then being quite nasty in the next breath...

mordy engaged with the thread sincerely and in good faith, and then was told he couldn't use the S-word

literally all the bullshit happened after someone tried to control how people interpreted the question.

i think he was asked not to use it, but it seemed v. important to him to ignore that request

look, Dolphins. aren't they adorable?

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/dolphins-poster-l.jpg

and why was that wrong? WCC said/clarified it wasn't about S, and I would have asked for further clarification but then, etc.

xposts render this incomprehensible, but in before lock.

being told not to use the S word, I mean.

stop mansplaining y'all, mordy is a misogynist and the question can only be discussed on the terms defined by the thread starter, *locks ilx*

There are plenty of other threads if people want to talk about suicide. OG asked for people not to do so in this thread, which is about something different. That's fair enough - I have done and will continue to ask people not to derail my own threads if I feel discussion goes AWOL. Maybe reinforcement of thread intention could have been done more diplomatically, but it didn't warrant the reaction that followed.

darragh don't be a dick.

i think mordy was fine here until he referenced an unrelated thread as a snipe. i dunno though, i'm a pretty big fan of letting conversations evolve organically

yes, that was unfair + mean of me to bring in an unrelated thread. i apologize for that. i was just annoyed at being called names w/out having done anything to deserve it. it was childish.

suicide was such a totally inevitable subject itt that it would've been wise to announce that the intention was take that word out of the equation from the beginning. although i still have no idea how that would actually work. any imaginary sci-fi scenario is going to evoke the closest real world analog.

can't believe someone misinterpreted this thread title as being about suicide. it's about *not existing* anymore you guys, *not* suicide, there's a big diff

button's function not well enough specified. so no will not press it.

The Barthes reference struck me as being intensely rude (and also not relevent, as this is, as pointed out, a discussion rather than a static work); unless it was some kind of high-fallutin' meta-joke about the OG being wiped from existence with no consequence. Which I doubt.

actually, that was the joke.

i'm glad someone got it, even if comedy is unnatural and abhorrent.

It was a bloody long punchline!

fwiw the OP is complaining about me by name on their twitter account. i guess i get to join the club.

you should retweet

guilty of being a dick SM, but eh that's what happened. Nobody owns threads, suicide wasn't a huge intangential leap.

done xp

Oh, I had that happen before too! Fun, huh?

I'm presuming there isn't actually going to be any further discussion of the original thread premise...

i'd press the button now, yeah

I'm happy to keep discussing the original thread. But suicide is an unavoidable topic here. I'm not sure why it's been ruled out.

*original thread premise

Anyway

I def think this is a suicide Q, at least in my thought process. Suicide or in this case non-existence has always been quickly ruled out once I think about how much my life has been built around artificial constructs, that my "happiness" (and occasional "sadness") are tied up in small variations of work-eat-exercise-socialize-internet patterns, that if I really was contemplating non-existence I'd first re-format my life and, in order, try out being a gym rat, a yoga teacher, a mechanic, a teacher, a scuba diving instructor, a ski bum, a beach bum, a thief, a drug addict, a mystic, a resident of Florida

How is this now unlocked?

pressed the "cease to be locked" button iirc

Oh.

As a non-mod this is all as magic to me.

I made that up btw, I have no idea what happened. I also am glad I only follow like Ned and two other ppl on Twitter.

Well, judging by the admin log, someone locked it and someone (else?) unlocked it.

the whole reason there are people who consider or attempt suicide but haven't done it is because of concerns of it involving physical pain, and/or emotional or financial or other repercussions to the people around them. that's why this looks like a suicide Q to so many people here.

i still can't see how this button can achieve this because by not existing you would be affecting SOMETHING by definition.

unless this button replaces your existence with another, identical, existence. i.e. it does fuck all?

yeah is the idea that some other spirit would inhabit your body and live your life? or you'd kinda be on autopilot while on some deeper level your true self wouldn've be around for any of it?

i think thought experiments are allowed to have unworkable irl parameters.

it can if the logic can follow it

no way, josé.

i'm impulsive tho, & prone to depressive spells, so catch me on a down path & (o wait I don't exist).

I wouldn't commit suicide, but I have enough days where I feel the 'cease to exist button' impulse that I voted yes. I keep going in the hope that I'll someday stop feeling that impulse. And also because, from a dramatic standpoint, I've lost way too much in my life for me to stop existing at this point without it being a little too pat and convenient. Yes, this is among the thoughts that keep me going.</overshare>

Also, the direction this thread took (writ large) is among the reasons that nonexistence occasionally sounds pretty sweet.

No, I don't think it's eradicating all you've ever done or replacing your existence with someone else; just stopping you existing now. All the things you've done still happened, but you're gone. Suspension of disbelief is needed, but no one misses you, someone else comes in and does your job, you just stop. Vanish.

unless this button replaces your existence with another, identical, existence. i.e. it does fuck all?

That's an interesting variation. Suppose that by pressing the button your consciousness ends, but the world goes on "objectively" just as it would otherwise. Either your body continues to operate like a philosophical zombie, or it retains consciousness and a sense of continuity with its prior life (we can suppose that it blocks out the memory of the button-pushing), but *you*, in an important sense, no longer exist. Nobody would ever have to know. Would it still be a kind of suicide?