DEATH!

[andrewducker]

For explanations of the two terms see here.

[Poll #1774220]

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Why would I care? I'll be dead.

[andrewducker]

The same argument applies to making a will, or anything else that effects that state of the world after you are likely to be dead.

And yet most people _do_ seem to care about these things.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Making a will is different since if I didn't do that the beneficiaries would nag me about it while I'm alive!

Surely people worry about the state of the world after they are dead only because it bothers them while they are alive.

[andrewducker]

Surely people worry about the state of the world after they are dead only because it bothers them while they are alive.

And the same goes for their body disposal technique. They care because it bothers them (which sounds like a tautology to me).

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

OK, just that it doesn't bother me.

So my ultimate answer would be "Don't care, but if it bothers you and I like you, then do what you want with it and if it bothers you and I don't like you, then I'll enjoy stipulating something that will annoy you."

[andrewducker]

Which is fine by me :->

[naath.livejournal.com]

I care about providing for people/causes I care about, I care about trying to leave the world a better place... but I don't think that caring about the eventual destination of my remains is part of that because I don't think my choices of body-disposal really affect the future world much.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

I would only be interested in a will if I could make strange and creepy demands. Nobody ever gets away with that sort of thing nowadays anyways.

Same thing with a funeral. In two of my posts, I mentioned how I wanted my remains to be treated. The first was to be strapped in an office chair and used for welfare fraud. The second was to be put in this:

http://eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com/1318309.html

but I'm sure no one would honor my dying request, fucking ungrateful bastards.

[andrewducker]

That would be awesome.

[eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com]

here's the story about the office chair:

http://eatsoylentgreen.livejournal.com/522892.html

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

My dad was a mortician. When my high school home room teacher found out, he told me to ask my dad how he would like to bury him. My dad said, "tell him we'll sharpen his head and screw him into the ground".

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

I'd like to be disposed of by whichever method that is the least hassle and has the least impact on the environment. As far as I can work out, digging a hole and throwing me in would be just about the best method, so long as you don't bother with a coffin.

[andrewducker]

Presumably buried deep enough that passing foxes don't just dig you up again.

We clearly need to do a study into the energy and time necessary for each technique.

Burial at sea probably does pretty well. Particularly in a shark-filled area :->

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

This is where the phrase 6 foot under comes from. To be safe from predatory animals digging up a corpse, 6 feet is about what it takes.

Which is coincidentally how most murder victims are found, digging a 6 foot hole is quite time consuming, so they tend to get left in shallow graves, and then animals come along for a free meal.

Leaving a cairn of rocks on top is a viable alternative.

[innerbrat]

As long as you're not in a place where the waste products produced bby your decomposition would poison the water table.

[naath.livejournal.com]

In as much as I care I'd like my body parts to be used to help people - organ donation, used for undergrad anatomy tutorials, stuff like that.

[andrewducker]

Oh, yes. I'd definitely want that before the rest of me was disposed of.

[cybik.livejournal.com]

Yes, this. After that I really don't care, although I'd like it to be as green as possible.

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

Another vote for this option.

[call-waiting.livejournal.com]

Sky burial always had a certain resonance...

[ninebelow.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sky burial is always the dream.

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

Cryonic preservation of the minimal amount necessary to bring me back, assuming such an option becomes remotely plausible in my lifetime (right now, I don't think it is, but hope it may be in say 50 years time, and I hope not to die at least until then - I won't sign up for it until much later though). Use of as many bits of me as can be useful for other people (probably not many, most of my bits don't work very well), and whatever causes least upset or financial cost to my relatives for the rest (donation to medical science?)

That's assuming I have to die at all. I'm still looking for a loophole there...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

"I intend to live forever. Or die trying..."
- Vila Restal

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Are your reasons for thinking reanimation from cryonic preservation *isn't* remotely plausible ATM written up anywhere I can read? Are they original to you, or is there another author you'd link to on this subject? Would be good to link to it from my blog - I'm trying to make a record of *all* the technical arguments against.

Note I'm *not* asking you to explain in your comment in reply to this - I'm afraid that's not really useful to me. thanks!

[andrewhickey.livejournal.com]

Mostly just the stuff on rationalWiki - apparent impossibility of Drexlerian nanotech, etc. Nothing new to you, I'm sure.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

OK - thanks again!

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Not wasted as food.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

My brother has said he's going to donate his body to science. I'm not sure yet, but probably will do the same. Advancing science seems like a decent way to use something otherwise pretty useless to me. They can make a merry bonfire with what's left of me when they're done.

[innerbrat]

Stripped and sold for parts.

- where 'sold' = given away on the NHS, you know how it is.

Any interesting pathologies preserved & donated to a medical museum sch as the Hunterian.

Skeleton jointed & mounted and placed in a classroom.

All other bits cut up by students.

If there's anything left, my family can do whatever they need to it to help them obtain closure.

Also that form to tab Firefox extension you linked to the other day doesn't appear to work.

[andrewducker]

If you mean this one then I just installed it on my work PC and it worked first time:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tabsubmit/

What's the problem you have?

[innerbrat]

The problem I have is that it doesn't submit the forms to new tabs. Forms are submitted in the same tab as they always have.

Add-on menu gives no options, but says it's enabled. So if I have to switch something on to mke it work, then I can't find it.

[andrewducker]

Are you following the instructions on the addon page? i.e. using ctrl-click or middle click?

[innerbrat]

That'll be it.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

After any remaining useful bits have been donated, stick me in a wicker coffin under a tree, please. I'll take being freeze-dried and composted due to lack of space but being a soil scientist, I rather like the thought of quietly decomposing naturally, thank you :)

The Boy is claiming he wants to leave his body to science, this may depend on him out-living his parents as I'm not sure they'll be overly taken with the idea!

[gonzo21.livejournal.com]

My friend Selena was buried in a cardboard coffin under a tree. Which seemed to me a pretty decent way of handling things. I rather like the idea of being recycled into a tree.

[pigwotflies.livejournal.com]

Me too. I want to buried under a tree.

[zz]

a nice big pyre on top of a hill. possibly with the attendees carrying torches.

as no-one will care enough to do that, buried under a tree sounds nice, or in a forest. coffin optional, but with some sort of gravestone type thing.

as no-one will care enough to do that, i'll probably just decompose in my flat (assuming i live alone then) until the neighbours notice the smell.

i really don't like the idea of modern cremation. too industrial.

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

It is my understanding that non-industrial cremations are not actually legal in the UK currently, although annoyingly I can't immediately lay my hands on an online reference to confirm this.

[zz]

I suspect you're right. But then some lawbreaking would go nicely with epic fire. and if bureaucrats tried to stop things, i'd consider them being thrown on the fire too a fitting tribute. :>

[marrog.livejournal.com]

I would totally donate my body to Science but I'm not sure Science would want it. I keep meaning to find out. Also, to send off my organ donor consent form which is in my bag. I never seem to remember when I'm near a post box.

I really, really wanted my mother to get an eco-burial - biodegradable coffin, natural fibre wrapped etc etc (her own words were 'in a cardboard box with a rowan tree on top' - more than once). The family claim to have looked into it but found that the body would have to be shipped (back) to the mainland and she'd need to be buried in Dumfries. If I'd been making any financial contribution to things I would've insisted. I'd want the same thing for myself, but I suspect (hope) that by the time I go that option will be more ubiquitous and less prohibitively expensive.

[andrewducker]

This may help you avoid sending bits of paper through the post:
http://organdonationscotland.org/nhs_organ_donor_register.html

I'm sure that the options will be more widespread by that point!

[naath.livejournal.com]

Science in the form of "undergraduate doctors needing anatomy training" could probably find a use for your body (but the bodies so used are later cremated/buried/etc so that delays the choice rather than removing it).

[marrog.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - I'm pretty happy with burial tbh so it wasn't really me trying to put off any decisions, just wanting to be useful.

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Can I pick the Skywhale option?

[soon_lee]

Another vote for cremation (once the useful bits have been salvaged). Was this the trigger for the poll?

[andrewducker]

Nope, the trigger was the BBC article I linked to. I have the BBC on Google Reader, and tend to pick things up from there.

[soon_lee]

Serves me right for not RTFA.

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I would like to leave my body to the military, to be used to test weapons. Apparently this can happen, but you can't specifically ask for it.

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

Whatever method returns my body to the biomass rapidly and with minimal greenhouse emissions.

Cut up into small pieces and left for animals appeals. But, you know, probably hazardous and illegal.