purchase wrote:
Luckily I'm never going to die, so.
This. I don't believe in death. The real me is the genes and ideas, and those last forever. As for my current point of view, that lasts forever as well because time does not flow: it is merely a way to make sense of the infinite possibilities around us.
Sure, the physical body gets recycled all the time - nearly all of our cells are recycled every few months or years. The real me is not my body, otherwise I would be dead already: all my original cells are gone. The real me is the genes that hold me together, and the experiences that make me unique.
Those cells are still out there somewhere: dead skin cells in vacuum cleaner bags in landfills, and the material from other dead cells has been long since been removed into my blood stream then ejected into a toilet. There it will be eaten by other creatures and become part of their bodies. And so the cycle of life continues.
When the last healthy cell of this body finally dies, it won't matter, I have already passed on my genes to my kids. My son is far more like me than I am: he has all the good stuff and none of the bad. He is the real me, the me I wanted to be but didn't get right first time. He is "me mark two." It makes me laugh that people pay a fortune to have their bodies frozen after they die, or hope to be reanimated through computer technology. There is a much easier way. I even have back-up copies (more children).
And if you don't have kids it doesn't matter - the genes are spread through the whole family. As long as enough people pass them on, the genes will survive. And if you want your precise pattern to survive (and you don't plan to have kids) then write a book.
The final death of a person would be so depressing. I'm glad it never happens.