dclayh comments on Rationality Quotes: February 2010 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: wedrifid 01 February 2010 06:39AM

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Comment author: dclayh 01 February 2010 10:50:42PM 17 points [-]

That is not dead which can eternal lie,/ And with strange aeons even Death may die.

—H.P. Lovecraft, clearly talking about cryonic preservation

Comment author: ciphergoth 03 February 2010 08:38:23AM 3 points [-]

Once out of nature I shall never take

My bodily form from any natural thing,

But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make

Of hammered gold and gold enamelling...

Yeats, on what he'll do when no longer "fastened to a dying animal".

Comment author: Tiiba 02 February 2010 03:30:52AM 0 points [-]

Definitely cryonics. I never really understood why this phrasing applies to Cthulhu, although I haven't read very much of Lovecraft.

Comment author: gwern 04 February 2010 07:30:53PM 0 points [-]

The Elder Gods and other nameless menaces are portrayed as unphysical quasi-extra-dimensional beings from elsewhere; as such, death does not apply to them. Astronomical/universal conditions merely allow or disallow their projects.

Comment author: Tiiba 05 February 2010 12:34:47AM 0 points [-]

But what are strange aeons? Why will Death die?

Comment author: orthonormal 05 February 2010 01:29:32AM 2 points [-]

Reading Lovecraft: You're doing it wrong.

Comment author: gwern 05 February 2010 01:35:36AM 0 points [-]

Strange eons are many and long aeons; HPL thinks in a steady state cosmos where the universe is indefinitely old. Death will die in the Christian phrasing - the non-human menaces grow more powerful over time and their 'sleep' periods will shrink.

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