thisago's blog

Do Not Commit Suicide, Please

Table of Contents

This ain't the bullshit we hear all time from mainstream. I have no interest in manipulating your mind by showing alignment in defending what is obvious, to then induce you accept later causes. Feel free to judge and criticize.

This has no relation with any technology topic.

Context

Suicide is polemic topic. It brings uncomfortable thoughts and mental images, it induces a defensive and reactive state of mind.

But hold on, I won't play the "morally superior", telling what values you should absorb. I have my own set of values, and it is not a kind of political promotion pamphlet which I'll distribute across the streets. Personal values is not a pragmatic topic for discussion, it is our lenses for the reality, it justifies our decisions, draws our motivations. There is emotion on it.
In the end, I am just trying to figure out what I really value in this life, through some reasoning and tests.

But I'd like to criticize the common conviction "suicide is wrong", and present a deeper level of it, which I adopt for myself.

I know, the world is pain, sometimes feels like a curse, but giving up never was a strategy.

Defining "Suicide"

After confirming coherence in Wiktionary ↗, I am considering "suicide" in this context as:
"the act of ceasing the own [human] life through intention".

It may not fit to all possible uses for the word but I need to define the base presuppositions so the point can make some sense.

I dare generalize that we consider this view as the literal homicide, ceasing it before its unpredictable time, but I'll go further.

Can the decision of give up from the humanity — the next generation — be a kind of suicide?

Even without aborting earlier, if we consider accepting the own natural death as the end of your genealogy tree as a kind of suicide (somewhat passive), the contribution for humanity's next generation is a real anti-suicide strategy.

If not the next generation, so what?

For everything has a end, so what could be the most sustainable and long-lasting goal that survives after us?

Or oversimplifying: Which is the safest investment for our finite energy?

Since a tool doesn't works without a operator, accumulating wealth doesn't solves this issue: once you go, the operator changes.

The only reliable agents in this reality are us, humans. The most advanced and powerful agent ever found by this world. It has the unique potential of increasing its worth by itself through time, even after you gone, without a present operator.

I can't see any active with higher potential for growth than humans. Investing on it, we can even workaround the end of death, guiding the next team bring our flag even farther.

This is a joy for me, like "Eureka! I found my purpose."

Our flag going far

Our flag. Everyone have a limited time from a expected range of years to bring the own flag farthest as possible.

Even the world's most efficient man is not able to overcome this limitation: Some goals are simply larger than the time given to us.

Who can this efficient person trust after he goes? Who can grab his flag, carefully calibrate his navigator and continue this same journey?

I see only a option, our children. For sure they're not consequences, but our hope.

The efficient man can reliably teach his children through all his values and give them capability and motivation to continue the journey. So they can build the tower on top of the strong foundation, which his father left.

The end

Inherit the next generation from yours. The world in 100 years belongs to those who did this. Your legacy is what remains.

Do not kill your generation, you can choose to honor your ancestors.

See the source code here.
Generated at 2025-12-03 Wed 10:01 +0000 by Emacs 29.4 (Org mode 9.6.15)