Doug_S. comments on Beyond the Reach of God - Less Wrong

66 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 04 October 2008 03:42PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (270)

Sort By: Old

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Doug_S. 17 October 2008 04:25:00AM 2 points [-]

@Doug S. Read "The Gentle Seduction" by Marc Stiegler. And, if you haven't already, consider anti-depressants: I know a number of people whom they have saved from suicide.

::Googles "The Gentle Seduction"::

Yeah, that's a very beautiful story. And yes, I take antidepressants. They just change my feelings, not my beliefs. Their subjective effect on me can best be described as "Yes, my life still sucks, but I'm cheerful anyway!" If I honestly prefer retroactive non-existence even when happy, doesn't that suggest that my assessment stems from something other than a lack of happiness chemicals in my brain?

Fear not, I have no intention of committing suicide in the near future. Although I prefer the world in which I never existed, the world in which I exist and and then die tomorrow is worse than the one in which I exist and continue to exist for several more years. (Specifically, my untimely death would cause great misery to several people that care about me, so I will refrain from dying before they do.)