Buried alive to learn life's value

[Devious Viper]

Buried alive to learn life's value

Medical students in Taiwan are being buried alive in coffins - to help them appreciate the value of life.

Teenagers at Rende Medical College are being given the unusual lessons which tutors say should give them an insight into death. The students have to write a will, dress in a funeral shroud and then climb into a coffin while they are buried under floorboards before they are released.

Professor Qiu Daneng explained, "Although it's just 10 minutes, the effect is equal to real death." And student Xiao Lin said, "I felt like I was reborn when I came out and now I know that every second counts in life."

(Orange News)

[Nina]

Well there is actualy the yearly festival if i got it right, when coffins are laid and people go through symbolical death. There is also a movie named, oh what a surprise, A coffin. Strange, but I can understand the meaning of this. Maybe we all should do it once in a lifetime?

And for anyone interested for the movie, heres the link: http://www.moviesdatacenter.com/Movies/The-Coffin-2009.html

[onishadowolf]

This reminds me of a movie, a bunch of medical students would stop their hearts and resuscitate each other. In the end they all went crazy, If you feel reborn coming out of a coffin I wonder how you feel coming out of a closet. I couldn't help myself. This can be a good thing but I see this turning into a new fad. Like the whole being wrapped in a blanket and crawl your way towards a light. I think it's called reliving the trauma of birthing. But, what ever floats your boat. If you want to pretend to be dead for a little bit so your not traumatized by the thought of death then so be it.

Just remember you will die one day. Nothing can stop it. So live. You don't need a coffin therapy to realize this.

[Nina]

The movie is called Flatliners 

[Devious Viper]

Just remember you will die one day. Nothing can stop it. So live. You don't need a coffin therapy to realize this.

It is not impossible that people alive today could potentially cheat death...

Natural death results from ageing, itself caused by telomeres, the caps at the end of chromosomes, which, every time a cell divides get closer to cell death and the limit of cell reproduction (the Hayflick limit). When the limit is reached the cells are unable to continue dividing, and as they approach this stage they reproduce with DNA faults, leading to organs of the body failing and the degenerative diseases associated with old age.

Now that science has identified the enzyme Telomerase, which maintains the length and stability of the telomeres, immortality is no longer confined to science fiction and mythology...

Would someone want to live forever? That's the common argument used against immortality, but, heck, most people would choose life over death if it were a reality handed to them in a pill rather than a philosophical argument over a J and a JD.

[onishadowolf]

Live forever....., who would want to do that? It's boring, death from natural causes keeps the species in check. Not only is it bad for your sanity, but if other people die before you than you'll become a melancholy depressed asshole. Not the best social traits, just think of it. And if everyone got it, you would see and be with the same people forever....unless murdered. I'll take the sweet embrace of death any day over artificial immortality. After 800 hundred years I'll be on a tall building with a 50. Caliber sniper rifile.

P.s. Thanks Nina, couldn't remember the movie name. :d

[Devious Viper]

It's boring, death from natural causes keeps the species in check. Not only is it bad for your sanity, but if other people die before you than you'll become a melancholy depressed asshole. Not the best social traits, just think of it. And if everyone got it, you would see and be with the same people forever....unless murdered. I'll take the sweet embrace of death any day over artificial immortality. After 800 hundred years I'll be on a tall building with a 50. Caliber sniper rifile.

Actually, even with mortality, you're only gonna see and be with the same people all of your life... But anyway, the point of immortality isn't to live forever - it is to live as long as you choose. Secondly, you immediately make an assumption that an individual's ordinary life on this earth is already enough of a problem as it is, and that infinitely more of the same would be hell. Have you seen every movie you ever wanted to see, read every book you wanted to read, learned every language you wanted to learn, visited every city you wanted to see, achieved all of your dreams, goals and ambitions..? How hard have you tried to have an impact on society, on the world, on history? Forgive me, but I doubt you're really trying. You will live a dreary mortal mayfly blink of a life and pass from this world without a ripple. If you don't have the intellect or imagination to prevent yourself from being bored today then just maybe you're not a candidate for the immortality pill. But c'mon, let's face it,

...it's not the frenzied rhythm that makes it a nightmarish vision; it's the mindset. Those who demonize immortality assume we will have the same priorities and preoccupations, but that will not be the case.

A recent article proposed

As sovereign individuals, by taking contraceptives we affirm that life will not come as a random, uncontrolled force; instead, it will come only when it is consciously wanted. By researching the methods of prevention and reversal of aging, we affirm the same thing about death. Just as we are able to decide how and when we create more life, we should be able to decide how and when we die. The possibility of achieving an indefinite lifespan appears thus as a logical extension of our right to govern ourselves... We need not fear it. It will not remove our humanity. On the contrary, it will help us become more reliably who we want to be. We will be able to be fully honest to ourselves. We will no longer dread the future. We will achieve maturity as a species, no longer subject to the whims of time, but free to follow the course we desire. We need not fear it. It is the end of our gravest fears. It is the step we must take. And then, looking at the universe as an equal, we will build the life we really wish to have, given enough time.(Carlos Arturo Serrano Gomez)

In the words of Borges, "To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal."

I was never good at being divine /wink

[onishadowolf]

Hence why I said after 800 hundred years, gives me enough time to do mostly everything.  Giving that choice to people isn't that great of an idea, some people are terrified of death and would never choose to end it. I would make the most of it, but given time I would become  a dissociated asshole. You appreciate life and enjoy life because you know it will end unexpectedly, take that away and....well you get the idea.   

[chaoticpsyche]

Some thing just popped into my head with this conversation it's a quote from a book I read.

"There is an old French curse: May your fondest wish come true. If this treatment is cheap and availible to everyone, it will destroy the world with overpopulation. If it is dear and available to only the very rich, it will cause riots, wars, and breakdown the social contract. Either way it will lead directly to human misery. What is the value of a long life, when it is lived in squaler and misery?"

"...The good an wise are out numbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid. When you give an Einstien two centuries to perfect his science, you give a thousand others two centuries to perfect their brutality."  - The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Why would anyone want to live forever? it seems dull after a while, there are things that you can experience while you have a mortal body, that is exciting. Once you take away mortality it makes living life hard to do, because you would have seen and done almost everything that there is to do, it wouldn't make the first experience exciting anymore, because you would compare it to something in the past.

I'm not sure if that made any sense, if not then just discard my input, I'm pretty tired after work.

[LeXtruX]

Some thing just popped into my head with this conversation it's a quote from a book I read.

"There is an old French curse: May your fondest wish come true. If this treatment is cheap and availible to everyone, it will destroy the world with overpopulation. If it is dear and available to only the very rich, it will cause riots, wars, and breakdown the social contract. Either way it will lead directly to human misery. What is the value of a long life, when it is lived in squaler and misery?"

"...The good an wise are out numbered a thousand to one by the brutal and stupid. When you give an Einstien two centuries to perfect his science, you give a thousand others two centuries to perfect their brutality."  - The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

Why would anyone want to live forever? it seems dull after a while, there are things that you can experience while you have a mortal body, that is exciting. Once you take away mortality it makes living life hard to do, because you would have seen and done almost everything that there is to do, it wouldn't make the first experience exciting anymore, because you would compare it to something in the past.

I'm not sure if that made any sense, if not then just discard my input, I'm pretty tired after work.

ok I know this topic is old and such but I did wanted to add something: you're right by saying that it is stupid wanting to live forever, but the world constantly changes and well... there will always be a new movie, a new themepark a new sport a new dancestyle or a new whatever you want to do... there is a lot of variaty now and when living forever is possible the variaty of things will remain, although it might be lesser then it is now.
Don't get me wrong, living forever isn't as beautifull as I make it seem, but it's not as bad as you all make it seem either...

[Muerte]

  To live forever.  Imagine all the power one could accumulate with the passage of years.  That alone would be enough to sustain me for a few 100 years easily.

[Raziel]

Not just immortality but a form of eternal youth......... Me cause i'm a coward.

[drakes-_hand]

But you would still be mortal unless the ''magic pill'' can stop a lion from eating you,
 

[ViciouslyMe]

Not necessarily. Technically, if your cells are still alive, then so are you. You just wouldn't have your original shape lol.

[drakes-_hand]

yuck digestive juices,  wait what about radiation?