″… look within the part of yourself that flees not from death but from the fear of death, that finds that fear so unbearable that it will embrace Death as a friend and cozen up to it, try to become one with the night so that it can think itself master of the abyss. You have taken the most terrible of all evils and called it good! With only a slight twist that same part of yourself would murder innocents, and call it friendship. If you can call death better than life then you can twist your moral compass to point anywhere—”
I think it’s pretty clear that Harry doesn’t have a good model of Dumbledore’s beliefs at this point. Later on he figures out that:
Dumbledore really wasn’t afraid of death. Dumbledore honestly, truly believed that death was the next great adventure. Believed it in his core, not just as convenient words used to suppress cognitive dissonance, not just pretending to be wise.
I thought this was the point Harry got right. Dumbledore says:
I have seen and done a great many things, too many of which I wish I had never seen or done. And yet I do not regret being alive, for watching my students grow is a joy that has not begun to wear on me. But I would not wish to live so long that it does! What would you do with eternity, Harry?
He doesn’t talk like he has a model of reality in which he continues to exist forever. If anything, he sounds tired (and like he correctly expects to get more tired of being who he is). Now, in principle he could have a strong expectation of radical change that makes the next life wholly unlike this one, so that his objection to eternity does not apply. But why expect him to expect this? (And if, say, he does not expect most of his memories to carry forward, then in what sense does he expect to survive?)
Ah, but a transhumanist who wants to survive has a) precedent (consider the difference between 1700 and 2000, for example), and b) doesn’t require a radical change, because by selection bias most transhumanists are going to be the kind of person who think life is fun in the first place.
Harry to Dumbledore in Ch. 39:
I think it’s pretty clear that Harry doesn’t have a good model of Dumbledore’s beliefs at this point. Later on he figures out that:
Good point! I missed that one.
When does he say this?
Chapter 56
Dumbledore believes in an afterlife, and unlike in the the Muggle world of non-magic, the idea is significantly harder to dismiss.
I thought this was the point Harry got right. Dumbledore says:
He doesn’t talk like he has a model of reality in which he continues to exist forever. If anything, he sounds tired (and like he correctly expects to get more tired of being who he is). Now, in principle he could have a strong expectation of radical change that makes the next life wholly unlike this one, so that his objection to eternity does not apply. But why expect him to expect this? (And if, say, he does not expect most of his memories to carry forward, then in what sense does he expect to survive?)
We might ask transhumanists the same question.
Ah, but a transhumanist who wants to survive has a) precedent (consider the difference between 1700 and 2000, for example), and b) doesn’t require a radical change, because by selection bias most transhumanists are going to be the kind of person who think life is fun in the first place.
Then Dumbledore doesn’t require a radical change. His exact phrasing is “our next big adventure”, not “our next new adventure”.
Right, but if he’s tired of life, why does he want a next big adventure? At least, that’s grandparent’s point.
He never said he was tired of life, he said that he was worried about being tired of life.
He expects to be tired of life by the time he dies. That’s why he’s fine dying “at the proper time.”