So lets take a bunch of electrons suspended in a memory chip of some kind. They're arranged in such a way that they can be read by a computer. They're storing information.

If we smashed that memory chip and the electrons escaped into the surrounding environment, SURE their "energy" hasn't been destroyed. But the information they were storing has been completely wiped out. And that's all we care about when we're talking about death.

To visualize the nothingness that you'll experience when you die, just try to remember what it was like before you were born. It's exactly the same. How do we know? Because your brain is the center of your experience. Your brain didn't exist before you were born, and it won't exist after you die. Therefore your experience will be the same in both situations.

I like Neil deGrasse Tyson's views of death.

deGrasse Tyson on death - in particular why he'd rather get buried than cremated: "...Put me in the ground. Let the worms, microbes come in and out of my body. And the energy content of my body that I had assembled over my lifetime consuming the flora and fauna of this earth. My body then returns to them. Thus is the cycle of life. .."

Here he is talking to Larry King about death and non-afterlife:

And here, I think, is his most poignant statement: "... The atoms of your body are traceable to stars that have exploded across the galaxy and spread that enrichment into gas clouds that would later make star systems ... elements of life ... in order to make planets and life on it. ... We are not only living in this universe, the universe is living within us." It's really a rephrasing of Carl Sagan's "We are stardust."

Jump to 3m on this Conan O'Brien's show for that particular quote. But the whole clip is also enlightening:

(Disclaimer: I'm a big fan of deGrasse Tyson. I would ask my family to use quotes from him instead of from the Bible at my funeral.)

I have had 2 near death experiences one set off by 'measles with double pneumonia and London smog' when I was four years old - One in my twenties when I took a massive overdose of barbiturates- They were both experiences of the 'floating off kind' into the upper stratosphere with accompanying random pleasant images - nothing unpleasant just leisurely going up and away - Obviously I didnt make the whole trip and theres nothing to say it won't be unpleasant when I do die but I think coming to terms with death as an inevitability is a good start and that might include nothingness and I hope you live a long and fruitful life and experience a good end.

Well, I think about my death a little more than most people, probably, because I have a terminal disease. I am not an atheist or agnostic, I guess, since I believe in reincarnation. As with the famous quote, I use the analogy of a stage: the world is a stage; when one is born, one enters the stage and the play, lives out whatever role he/she is playing, and then dies (exits). But to me there is something after death: a return to a nonphysical state, to rest, review the life just lived, plan a broad outline of the next life, etc. When one is ready, one is born again. This is highly simplified, of course.

Yes, of course energy continues, and as energy “we the molecules and quarks” are immortal, AND, this starts to sound a lot like a sappy substitute for a humanist afterlife. Disciples of the Buhdda asked him the same question; he retorted, “You idiots can’t even deal with THIS life .... never ask such foolishness again.” The real challenge for Humanists, is between “now and death”, what do we choose to do ?

ohhhh, I am bad.
Matter can be broken down into energy. conservation of energy in an isolated system etc.
But the energy is not me, the atoms in my body are not me. When I die, me is gone. I become nothing. I am fine with that, I am just a piece in time that existed after my past and before my future. My ancestors preceded me and my offspring survive me. Just a link in an ever changing chain. I was doomed to die from conception so I don't have any emotion about that. To me the concept that only that which can die can give birth works.

For billions of years before I was born, there was nothing as far as I was concerned. After my death, I will be in the same situation. Hopefully I will be remembered fondly by those I love.

To better understand "Nothingness"...

Oh, and nothingness prevails...

Energy will dissipate as heat. That’s it.

I see death alot.. it can sometimes make one comfortable with their own mortality.
I have also seen many devout religious people fight death so vigorously on their deathbeds.. makes you wonder what's going on in their minds if cognizant at all.. hmm??

The energy stored in your body - along with all the chemicals that make up your organs, bones and the rest - will be passed on to other organisms, starting with the bacteria that will get to work breaking you down almost immediately after you die. They'll in turn be eaten by other organisms, then those organisms by other organisms and so on - so in a way, you'll be reincarnated into many new lives.

Nothingness certainly is a hard concept to grasp, though - I think of it as being simply switched off.

Our energy moves from us after we die. Into whatever it is that decomposes is. I want to be buried in a balsa or paper machet casket in a shallow grave so my energy turns into grass and wildflowers and feeds the trees. Not burned and wasted and added to the atmosphere like so much carbon. The worms will move through and take my energy where it needs to go.

Do you remember what it was like before you were born? That's what it will be like after you die. We simply cease to exist, except for this bag of bones we all reside in. My plan is to have my remains cremated; perhaps without some bits that may help someone, but nonetheless, it is of little concern to me as long as I feel comfortable leaving with the knowledge I did more good than harm. And, truthfully, even that won't matter in the end.

Just like sleeping, but you do not wake up.