Thread: If you died.......

This answer seems pretty simple to me. I would rather move onto a 2nd life because eventually that lucid dream is going to get boring and you are going to want some human contact.

It would be a tough decision for me, because wouldnt you have contact with dcs, who are pretty normal until somthing happens

Yes, you would have contact with DC's, and they would act some-what normal, but it just isn't the same as talking to a real human. For example, take some conversations that you have had with dream characters and compare them to real life. At least for me, most of them are crazy and can sometimes even be plain gibberish. Plus, I like the thought that I am talking to another intelligent life form, not myself. If you are lucid then you know that it is just dream characters and not real humans, so I wouldn't get the same satisfaction.

If there is something beyond death, pretty damn sure its easier to make contact with other stuff using dream powers than just going to whater else, so lucid dreaming for me.
Plus, if this life could be discarded so easily don't see the difference between it and a dream, so DC/human would become a useless term for me at that point.

I was thinking about this today and it's a good thing to see this thread.

I was doing a review of a movie called "Vanilla Sky". Tom cruise was a wealthy man and he purchases a treatment in which he would live forever, but he would have to be asleep. In his dream he didn't know about this treatment so things were normally during the first days but after a while his subconscious starts tricking him and eventually he becomes crazy. He is taken to a mental hospital and a psychiatry starts to treat him (because he killed someone). That psychiatry turns to be his dream mentor and he finds out that the most important time of his life was fake. All the love, friendship was fake and even more frustrating was that if he woke up then he wouldn't find his friends anyways because they were dead, he was asleep for a long time. It was like a very long nightmare. Like those in which you feel very frustrated and you think that world has turned against you.

Personally I would like a second life because at some extent of your dream you will feel frustrated (actually it happens on non-lucid dreams). Anyways after a while you will start thinking that everything that you do is senseless. Why would you start a love relation with a character if it's not even real?

This question made me think a lot, but my conclusion is that you will end up in a limbo (From movie "Inception") which is not worthy.

SECOND LIFE FOR SURE.

Nice answer!

If you started a second life, would you lose all the memories from your first? Would my personality be reset? This would be the equivalent of disappearing completely, and a entirely new person being born. If you kept your memories, it would really just be an extension of this life, with all new friends?

If I could keep my memories, I would like a second (and third, and fourth..) life. In life, I can still lucid dream. In a permanent lucid dream, I would be unable to live.

If I did not keep my memories, I would rather be in a lucid dream. I would not want to die a permanent death, and have all my life experiences lost.

I was taking it as if you died, got reincarnated, and lost all of your memories from your past life. Either way, like you said, I can lucid dream in life.

I desperately hope that death is a lucid dream. I don't believe there is anything after death, but I do really, really hope it is a dream.

Well, sit in an endless lucid dream forever implies your memory will never be reset right? Because that would be pure hell after just a little while. I'd rather live a second life. In the dream you're the one shaping everything and in the end you'll end up knowing exactly what's going to happen.

Second Life regardless. A lucid dream forever may sound cool. But after 10000 years would it? 100000? 1000000? 10000000? 100000000? 10000000000000000000000000000000000000? And even after that many years the dream won't end. It will continue, for a trillion years after that, and another, and another. And soon, it will be a curse you will never free yourself from; you will get bored of all the things you can do, and nothing will fill this boredom, until it becomes sadness, then depression, then despair, with nothing to cure it. you will be trapped in your own lucid dream, wishing you never made that choice.

That's what I think anyways.

Hmm, at first I thought the second life, without a doubt. But when you think about it, that more or less is what would happen anyways (for those of us who don't believe in heaven). If you have no memories or anything else from your past life, wouldn't it be the equivalent of just being another person born? With that in mind I think I'd choose the permanent lucid dream. I could use all my life experience to keep myself entertained for a long time. I think after a while it wouldn't really matter that it's not real. You'd become so invested in your dreamworld (perhaps playing god to a universe of worlds) that you somewhat forget that you're dreaming. I guess you'd go insane after a while, but that's not so bad compared to a permanent death is it?

Or I suppose dreaming could just become a curse, you could be begging for a death that'd never come.. Hmm.. Good question!

This question could make for an awesome sci-fi story premise. Seriously.

On-topic, second life. At first, an infinite lucid dream would sound nice. But what about after a year? After ten years? After a century? There will be no contact with another life form. You have to spend eternity in solitude. Think - how maddening could that become? Sure, the DCs would provide some company at first, but what happens when the novelty wears off? What happens when the person sees and does the same things, over and over? What happens when the person loses their sanity, craves the affection of others, craves to see at least one more person like themselves again - but never can? Living in an eternal lucid dream might eventually become an eternal lucid nightmare: one that only gets worse... and worse... and worse... and worse... and yet the dreamer will never awake from it. And thus, they will fall into deeper loneliness, deeper loss, deeper insanity.

So, second life for me. :B

Dream, I can't bare to live in this place again.

I would want to move on to a second life. No particular reason but I want to experience life in a different shoe.

The most obvious answer would be the impulse of wanting a lucid dream forever. But upon thinking about it, it's probably not a good idea. Like Solarflare made clear, forever is a LONG time.

I agree with Solfarflare - I wouldn't want there to be anything after this life which I'm aware of. In other words, it would have to be a reincarnation in which I lose all my memories, etc. (although in a way that wouldn't actually feel like a second life) or just nothingness. In fact, I think nothingness would be best.

Knowing you've only got a finite amount of time on the clock grounds you in the present, and encourages you to enjoy yourself while you're here.

What I hope for is kind of a combination. An eternal SHARED lucid dream. Preferably one in which I can choose whether I am alone with just my creativity or whether I join a 'multiplayer'. That is because the downside of an eternal non-shared lucid dream would be that you are constantly aware, and forever alone with just the creations of your own mind. I'd like to be able to make contact with other individuals, otherwise I would probably go for the second life.

Second life, of my own creation, would be my choice hands-down.

That said, a quick note for Solarflare: yes, eternity can be a very long time, but if that eternity were spent in a lucid dream wherein you grew, developed, and generally made your self, and your self-induced universe constantly better, wouldn't you be pretty much a god after all those years? Couldn't you also change who you are over and over and over, always changing things up and lending novelty to every new day? I don't see why not.

An eternity is a very long time, but use it well and even it would not be enough...

Forever is a tiring thing indeed. After watching a drama on vampires, I figured it's a good thing that our lives actually end and we (may or may not) start a new life. Imagine yourself stuck with the same mind forever and everything you ever wanted to do will be done before even 100 years is up.

^^ I don't know about you, but I've got enough I want to do to fill at least another 200 years, and I'll bet I could think of much more before that time is up!

...And who says it has to be the same mind? Isn't that one thing we can change, even now? Remember that your mind would not be stagnant, even if you chose an eternal LD -- at least it wouldn't need to be; I suppose stagnation could be an option, but it seems a very odd choice!

And yes, it's amazing how the writers of those vampire shows portray the vampires... that they're alive for so long and do absolutely nothing with their lives seems pathetic to me (also very much against the lore established by the likes of Stoker and Rice). I wonder if they don't do it simply to give their viewers something to feel superior about.

Originally Posted by Sageous

Second life, of my own creation, would be my choice hands-down.

That said, a quick note for Solarflare: yes, eternity can be a very long time, but if that eternity were spent in a lucid dream wherein you grew, developed, and generally made your self, and your self-induced universe constantly better, wouldn't you be pretty much a god after all those years? Couldn't you also change who you are over and over and over, always changing things up and lending novelty to every new day? I don't see why not.

An eternity is a very long time, but use it well and even it would not be enough...

You sure that after 20000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000 years you would still feel the same way?

Originally Posted by Solarflare

You sure that after 20000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000 years you would still feel the same way?

Yup. Add all the zeros you want. The more years, the more to learn, to grow, to explore...it's a big universe. Also, wouldn't there be a point in an eternal being's life when time simply no longer factors into the equation? After all, anyone who lives that long will have certainly developed a sensibility that does not consider time important. If you think about it, the only reason time means anything to us is because we are limited, because we'll all be dead in a century or so. That thought wouldn't find a foothold in an eternal being.

Sorry. I hate to ever see our potentials limited. Do it now, with things like this, and you might start adding limits to the dreams you actually can realize in this short life.

Who is to say your lucid dream wouldn't become your second life?

It would simply be life changing as you knew it. After a period of time, you would forget that it could possible come to an end in the real world. It would be like this: In the late 1800s, bicycles were invented. People would be thrilled having a bike over walking. Now, cars are invented. People would be thrilled having a car, and riding a bike would seem unwilling. But, if you never knew cars actually existed, you would be thrilled to have a bike. It's the same concept. You wouldn't feel this "boredom, until it becomes sadness, then depression, then despair" because you wouldn't know that there could be a better outcome.