Flesh of Theseus.

I've been vegan for over a decade, so with constant cell regrowth I'm photosynthesis with extra steps.

thats like the concept of buddhist reincarnation, there is no "soul", ego is illusion in buddhism

like a stream of consciousness constantly travelling through cycles

even moreso. ever meet people that are a type. where several are really similar. I have even seen and met my own type. not only will people continue being born but ones a lot like you.

Is that like how we are all a single consciousness simultaneously inhabiting each person across space and time? That idea appeals to me. Don't know that I'd say I believe it, but it appeals to me.

Which means we're all the same being, a.k.a Nature, among many other names.

Dinosaurs reincarnated as all sort of species later on, including human. This manifests in multitude of ways, for example when a furry person has a weird kink for dinosaurs - it's very likely they were one in a past life.

Donald J. Trump.

Miscarriage?

Mushrooms.
They came before the queue got started and will be here long after it finishes.

Pillars of Eternity happens.

That’s interesting. I’ve had that same thought before, it might be cool to see someone else’s take on it. Do you remember the name of the story or author?

I don't actually believe this, but it's the perspective I try to have in life. Always treat others how you want to be treated because maybe one day it will be you.

Rerolling. As a Civilization player, I get it. I'd be aiming for that legendary start too.

I would say it's tactical at best.

In that case, people with retrograde amnesia are already dead and we should just consider them a new legal person...

If you lose all your memories due to amnesia, you will still be you, experiencing reality as you, just with your "hard drive" being wiped.

Well some people who believe in reincarnation seem to also think that at least some memories do get preserved, perhaps subconsciously.

Then there is the whole dualist aspect: if reincarnation is real, something must carry over past death. Call it a soul, or an essence or personality or whatever. While I find dualism highly dubious, I can see its appeal.

That said, one could imagine, at least in principle, that through "some mechanism" your reincarnated body develops the same brain structure that you had when you died, perhaps with some differences needed to account for the different memories. If one entertains this fiction, I would argue there is significant similarity between the person who died and the person who they reincarnated as.

I've seen them blamed for literal hurricanes.

Now that you mention it, I'm even more excited to experience the living goo in a shell phase!

There are many religions and it seems likely they all are just different interpretations of the same source idea - that our lives have a higher purpose.

But I dont think you can be sure that its the Bible that is correct. What if the Koran is correct?

You cant really optimize your life by following a book we dont even know how much its been manipulated since creation. So most people are just trying to do the best they can.

Let’s say this life is all you get: wouldn’t you also do a million things to stay healthy and live longer, which most people do not do?

We invented the afterlife because it’s hard to deal with the fact that life is sometimes nasty, brutish, and short. Death is pretty hard to face too. So we lie to ourselves and each other about it. Simple as that.

The problem is that there's a loophole where you just have to say sorry and all is forgiven.

That's why suicide is a mortal sin, because you can't say sorry after.

Although when my step nephew killed himself (didn't really know him) all they could talk about was that he's in heaven now.

In more secular societies, over the last couple of years, people are celebrating more at funerals. Which, IMO, is a better way to remember a dead loved one.

I'd rather they have fun once more on my account when I die than just sit around being sad.

Right? We’d celebrate death anniversaries, not birthdays.

Things explainable with doctrine are explained with doctrine. Things that defy doctrinal explanation are biological or “just because.”

Don’t worry, Chief, I don’t even expect logic from religion, so don’t try.

This assumes you don't get stuck as something that can't kill itself to re-roll.

But you'd have to suffer through infancy and childhood until you're old enough to have the capability to kill yourself

There'd still be a five or so yeah buffer on it, and who's to say that won't be worse. Fun fact I read a pre fall of the eldar fanfic with this basis, it just kept getting worse until Slaanesh was murder fucked into existence.

What if it didn't and the spiritual space your soul inhabits between bodies is discovered and exploited as a means for faster than light travel.

So you'd have a non zero chance of being run over by a starship on your way to your next corporeal form

imagine it's FTL.

We manage to preserve messages between reincarnations.

Gets studied to bits by science. Someone develops FTL communication by giving someone a message, offing them and them delivering the message at the new place.

Except that there are a ton of potential places to reincarnate at. So every message needs massive redundancy to properly deliver

reincarnation based FTL communication

Now we got a book idea. 😃

Depends on the planet.

If you think fascist are an Earth-only thing, then I want you to meet my good friend "statistics"

stay there for decades

Yeah. I read that book 20 years ago, and I can still vividly remember someone microwaving some meat and discovering that it was their own ass cheek, or a cis woman being accused of being trans and being sexually assaulted, someone falling into a spring at Yosemite, and of course, “Guts.”

He has a schtick with memorable twists, similar to Fight Club. I think Choke was the only novel of his I remember not really having a giant record scratch moment - Lullaby, Invisible Monsters, etc have huge twists. Like discovering the orgy heaven at the end of Haunted which really just serves to punch you in the gut - absolutely all of the fucked up things that the characters were doing to try to be famous was absolutely pointless, because everyone on Earth is killing themselves anyways.

The only fiction authors I can think of that have given me the same level of intense shock and revulsion would be Ágota Kristóf with the Notebook trilogy (which is spectacular and everyone should read) and Samuel Delany’s Hogg (which no one should read under any circumstances.)