An Interview with Anthony Sepulveda on Life and Death (Part Two)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/07/01
Abstract
Anthony Sepulveda scored 174 (S.D.15) on Cosmic and is a member of the World Genius Directory. He discusses: life; death; the meaning of life; boundary for the meaning of life; spiritual or natural entities; realization of the finitude of life; the idea of a soul; high intelligence; in the context of the contemplation of death; a cancer test; the priorities in life; a cancer diagnosis; feeling about it; the purpose of life; hopes moving forward; the type of cancer; a bucket list; legacy; the knowledge day-to-day; the baseline things that matter now; and religious beliefs and adherence to certainty in an afterlife.
Keywords: Anthony Sepulveda, cancer, death, life.
An Interview with Anthony Sepulveda on Life and Death (Part Two)[1],[2]*
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*
1. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Hey Anthony! Let’s talk about life and death. First, some rapid-fire questions followed by some longer questions, we can then move into personal questions. What is life to you?
Anthony Sepulveda (Brown): Life is a pretty vague term. Ideally, it would be defined by its correlation with consciousness. But we can’t really be certain.
2. Jacobsen: What is death to you?
Sepulveda (Brown): Death occurs when the physiological processes of an organism fail and revert to purely physical ones.
3. Jacobsen: What is the meaning of life to you?
Sepulveda (Brown): It’s such a bizarre question. Meaning implies intent beyond simple existence and likely cannot be conclusively clarified beyond a subject’s nature. For example, if philosophers were to examine a carburetor with the intent of divining the meaning of its existence, two groups would likely form – one with the intent of determining its purpose by relating its design to known scientific facts, while the other squabbled over how it exists at all. It’s my belief that the purpose (not the meaning) of life in any form is to survive, procreate, explore, have fun and be happy, in that order. But those of the latter group would be unsatisfied with that answer because they never accept simple answers. In truth, what they really want is to fully understand the epistemic nature of God and the Grand Design. And it’s probably never occurred to them that our limited powers of cognition may be completely inept in the face of such a problem.
4. Jacobsen: Does the fact of, at least, physical death provide a context for finality of the body, at a minimum, and, therefore, a boundary for meaning of life to take place?
Sepulveda (Brown): No, meaning is assigned to whole groups more accurately than individuals
5. Jacobsen: Are human beings fundamentally spiritual or natural entities?
Sepulveda (Brown): All processes are natural.
6. Jacobsen: What do you think science and philosophy clearly show about human nature? Or, what is human nature?
Sepulveda (Brown): Deterministic.
7. Jacobsen: When it comes to one’s realization of the finitude of life for others and oneself, what does this do to the sense of one’s total amount of time in life?
Sepulveda (Brown): It accentuates the line between life and death and, in my case, at least, exaggerates one’s priorities.
8. Jacobsen: Does the idea of a soul make any sense to you?
Sepulveda (Brown): Not in the traditional sense that it is connected to yet, somehow, separate from our physical self.
9. Jacobsen: A good mind, a rational one, can help with the establishment of a longer, healthier life on average, but cannot stave of physical death. It’s a fact of life. Death is coming our way. What does high intelligence mean in the context of the contemplation of death?
Sepulveda (Brown): I’m not sure that intelligence has much impact on one’s perspective when it comes to mortality. I’ve met many people across a wide spectrum of intellectual and creative ability and haven’t yet found a correlation between individual ability and personal opinion. Some are religious, some aren’t. Many are certain of their opinions, others, including myself, admit to their ignorance on the subject. I believe the that any difference of opinion is due to the relatively unique combination of experiences we’ve cultivated throughout our lives and that, since death is the ultimate unknown factor, we can never truly be certain of any processes that occur to any non-physical part of ourselves after death.
10. Jacobsen: Now, if we move into more personal materials, your friend had a cancer test. What is the story leading up to it?
Sepulveda (Brown): Actually, it was me that underwent a cancer screening. (Pretext for those reading – In part one, I was asked about important life experiences. I neglected to mention my cancer testing because telling the story in it’s entirety could have potentially had a negative effect on someone I care about greatly, She and I discussed this after the publication of my first interview and she assured me that she would not be effected by it’s release). As for the story itself, I found a lump in a place that should never ever have one late one night (around 10 PM). After the initial shock, I didn’t know what to do. The only action I felt certain of was to contact my best friend, Tango. Not to tell her of my unfortunate discovery (I kept it to myself until after I’d received the negative test results), but simply to tell her how much she meant to me.
11. Jacobsen: How does this test change the priorities in life?
Sepulveda (Brown): Profoundly. Prior to it, I, likely, would have focused on the long term effects of my actions. Now, I’m much more concerned with my overall satisfaction before death.
12. Jacobsen: How does a cancer diagnosis reorient the timeline of a life?
Sepulveda (Brown): It exaggerates your priorities exponentially.
13. Jacobsen: How are you feeling about it?
Sepulveda (Brown): Now, I’m grateful for it. It forced me to face my own mortality and determine what is truly important. Ultimately, I believe that life overall will move inexorably towards it’s eventual conclusion. So it doesn’t matter what I do or accomplish. So I may as well focus on whatever goal I want, no matter the consequences.
14. Jacobsen: What is the purpose of a life in the context of a shortened life, knowing about it, and seeing that one’s life will be cut far more short than others?
Sepulveda (Brown): As I said, facing that distinction exaggerates your opinions. Whatever the test results, I was determined to live my fullest life.
15. Jacobsen: What are your hopes moving forward in the context of the earlier, potentially, loss of a loved, and cared for, one?
Sepulveda (Brown): Hope is a bad word for me and I try my best not to rely upon it. But my ultimate goal is to understand my position in the game of life and attain as much personal satisfaction as I can with what options are open to me.
16. Jacobsen: What is the type of cancer?
Sepulveda (Brown): Nonexistent. The tests confirmed that it was a cyst, thankfully.
17. Jacobsen: Do you have a bucket list?
Sepulveda (Brown): I do. Would you like to know what’s on it?
18. Jacobsen: Have you thought much more about legacy? If so, what kinds or levels of it?
Sepulveda (Brown): Not really. I’m over 30 years old and single at the time of this interview, so having kids of my own is becoming an increasingly unappealing option. Luckily, I’m quite content with my status as an uncle to an amazing little girl I love dearly and spend as much time as I can with.
19. Jacobsen: How do you cope with the knowledge day-to-day?
Sepulveda (Brown): By trying my damnedest to live without regret. After securing my priorities, I explore every avenue that interests me without stressing on long term effects.
20. Jacobsen: What are the baseline things that matter now – with the additional clarity?
Sepulveda (Brown): Family, friends and fun. Many members of the High IQ Community believe that our inherent abilities predispose us the responsibility to use it to benefit society. I disagree because I believe that human evolution will inevitably head towards the same destination no matter what I do. Someone will come up with the next big idea, others will support it and it’s effects will spread as far as they can. The data for said idea is simply waiting to be gathered in the interim. It’s just a matter of time before someone finds it.
21. Jacobsen: Do you think many religious beliefs and adherence to certainty in an afterlife is to assuage and comfort a fear of an apparent finality of physical death?
Sepulveda (Brown): Yes. I believe that people find comfort in the idea that the essence of who they are is a unique, singular thing (soul, consciousness, life force, etc.) that will exist in some stable state forever. But the idea of an afterlife (especially an infinite one) doesn’t make sense when you think about it logically. No matter the size of a site (physical or metaphysical), it will have a finite boundary. This implies that Heaven, Hell or any other post-death place of existence either cannot hold the potentially endless number of souls sent there unless there is a place for them to go once that boundary is reached. With this in mind, the only option that makes sense to me is reincarnation. Beyond that, however, I’m not sure that anything can be determined without some very unusual and, undoubtedly, unethical scientific experiments.
Appendix I: Footnotes
[1] Member, World Genius Directory.
[2] Individual Publication Date: July 1, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/sepulveda-two; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2020: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.
License
In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
Copyright
© Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing 2012-Present. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Scott Douglas Jacobsen and In-Sight Publishing with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All interviewees and authors co-copyright their material and may disseminate for their independent purposes.
In-Sight Publishing 