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

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?

if I turn into a zombie by pushing the button I may want to change my answer

zombie you also now has a mustache

and what becomes of the "you" that continues? sure "they" will have some kind of "consciousness" in order to function? i guess it depends whether you regard there being a "spirit" or whether we are but automata

Oh, on the reinhabitation tip, I have thought before that it would be awesome if I could body swap with someone like Stephen Hawking who could put this bag of meat to better use and who would be much more appreciative of being relatively healthy. Healthy once you scoop the brain out, anyways.

it's like that film about that dude who does this magic trick that involves making a copy of him and then drowning the original copy to perform a teleport.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482571/

xps, you say automata, I say automahta, lets call the whole thing off.

twittercide

no way no way

automata

at present my answer varies from hour to hour - at the moment, no, but get back to me later, it's a pretty appealing idea

no. i don't know why but answering yes to this seems kind of narcissistic somehow

if a guy walked up to you with the button every day going "how bout now?" yeah we'd probably all push it eventually. and then it'd just be the guy with the button running things. which is probably what he wanted all along, the bastard.

reagan

ned ryerson

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

― Mordy, Friday, 12 October 2012 14:57 (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you should retweet

― some dude, Friday, 12 October 2012 14:59 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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

― Randy Carol (darraghmac), Friday, 12 October 2012 15:00 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

done xp

― Mordy, Friday, 12 October 2012 15:00 (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

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

― (✿◠‿◠) (ENBB), Friday, 12 October 2012 15:02 (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

indeed.

Lol wcc actin like she's the fuckin mayor mccheese of psuedo philosophical faux suicide threads

but get back to me later, it's a pretty appealing idea

It really is! But even more appealing is a "do-over" button. If I could cast my current consciousness back in time into my body -- say, when I was 11 and we moved from CA to MS -- I would do that without even bothering to say goodbye to anybody here first. Well, maybe a couple of people.

oh hell yeah wmc, just lmme grab these lotto numbers first