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Comment by simonh | Hacker News Reader

It’s the same. I had surgery last year and it seemed like it was over in an instant. When you’re asleep your mind drifts in an out of different levels of awareness and consciousness from time to time so you have some experience of time passing. With anaesthesia in my experience there’s just nothing. Trying to remember what it was like, you might as well be trying to remember what it was like before you were born.

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Yes. I found it incredibly disorientating, even after the event because time has passed and I have no awareness of it.

I had my first full anesthesia experience as an adult - emergency but minor surgery, so not an extremely scary ordeal. I was very distinctly trying to pay attention to the process of going under, as in: do i feel it fade? etc.

I remember doing the countdown thing and also trying to see if i could notice it at all like going to sleep. but, just like an off switch, no state change, just a full stop (but without something like "blackness"). First woke up to voices of nurses chitchatting across the recovery room and knowing everything was okay.

But as another comment put it, I can only imagine death being similar (if instant/unexpected/while sleeping/etc), just without the coming back. Which is scarier.

When I was a kid this once happened to me by just sleeping. I closed my eyes at night, opened them seemingly immediately and it was morning, feeling absolutely rested.

It was pretty weird and amazing, and never happened again. I haven't heard anyone reporting something like this, but I'm almost sure it must have happened to other people too.

A similar thing once happened to me as a kid, albeit with a twist. I counted down from 10 quite slowly and opened my eyes once I reached 0 - only for it to be morning.

It happened to me once or twice. It felt great, and I still think about it sometimes several decades later.

I also thought about it reading the comments here.

If reality has always existed and will continue to exist for eternity, cyclical or not, it is probably inevitable that the configuration of phenomena called "you" will come back together after your death. It's forever afterall.

Maybe, but would that be the same you, or as though someone had made a copy of you?

"A difference that makes no difference is no difference.'

So how would you feel if I offered to make two copies of you, but in the process your body would be instantly and painlessly destroyed. That's twice as much of you. A good deal, yes? I could offer to do the same for your children. You'd have twice as many loving kids to look after you in your old age.

Why would it be a copy and not you?

I would take all of those deals. And if I could somehow upload, I'm releasing my model and weights under copyleft to ensure there are plenty of me around operating automatic doors, flying taxis for uber, enjoying time, and yes, probably being tortured by some sicko in VR.

>But as another comment put it, I can only imagine death being similar (if instant/unexpected/while sleeping/etc), just without the coming back. Which is scarier.

You can't imagine it, because it lacks time. There's nothing to imagine.

I guess I was unclear - i was referring to the "just disappearing and not even knowing it" part more than the experience of something lapsing whilst you are unaware.

I also had anesthesia for the first time as an adult, but I did kind of feel something as I was going under. It felt like my mind was melting away, and at the same time my hearing was fading out. It was kind of a pleasant feeling to be honest.

In the last decade, I was put under mildly (?) for an outpatient surgical procedure. I remember trying to tell the doctor that the framerate of my eyes was stuttering (and that I was more observant of such things than some people, due to my career), them telling me to "stop trying to talk" and me trying to say "okay". Next was trying to get oriented in the recovery room to tell the nurse how much pain I was feeling.

In my youth, I was put similarly under for impacted wisdom teeth. I remember becoming aware of the noises and forces on my neck mid-procedure, then opening my eyes and trying to make noises and facial expressions to get their attention. I am not sure how much time passed before I heard one person say, "he's coming out", they paused their work and then it was lights out until recovery again.

In both cases, the anesthesia was explained to me in advance as mild in that my autonomic breathing would still be there, and I could probably respond to them if they talk to me, but I wouldn't remember any of it. Apparently, there is a deeper anesthesia where you are so suppressed that you need more life support and monitoring.

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