[HN Gopher] Living Like Nothing Matters ___________________________________________________________________ Living Like Nothing Matters Author : 5F7bGnd6fWJ66xN Score : 10 points Date : 2022-09-10 21:07 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (awealthofcommonsense.com) (TXT) w3m dump (awealthofcommonsense.com) | Razengan wrote: | Going through a shitty phase (which happens often) I've been | trying to cope in various ways, reaching high and low, inside and | outside, for meaning and purpose and guidance. | | I don't subscribe to most existing models, not out of a | rebellious choice but because I cannot find or follow their logic | to a satisfactory conclusion. | | So far this is what I have, make of it what you will: | | * There must be a default state, and a part of it must reside in | everything built upon it. It doesn't make sense that something | began from Nothing, but I like to think that something began from | _Everything._ | | * But it doesn't mean that a superset system can control a subset | system 100% - Think of our relationship with computers and the | programs running on/in them, along with all the physics involved | and the virtual results. | | * Veritasium's video on "Math's Fundamental Flaw" [0] was a good | source of inspiration: Shit may be coded with hard immutable | logic but still have virtually infinite possibilities. | | * If you think your mind, or your "will" or "heart" or "soul", | matters in any way and can make any difference, try to find the | cutoff point between -where- that metaphysical quality _starts_ , | what sets "you" apart from everything else: What's the difference | between you and every other person's mind/soul? Or a person's | mind and a computer program? The difference between a world with | no humans in it, and a world with 1 human? A barren asteroid and | a planet with life? Can a rock access the mysteries of the | Universe? Can you? | | TL;DR: What you see right now may be what you will ever get, | everything may just be circumstance, but there -just might- be a | way to touch something greater. | | [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQX2HjkcNo&t=1772s | toomanyrichies wrote: | I've read books whose gist is the same point this author makes, | and I agree it's such a freeing realization. | | Out of the estimated 117 billion[1] humans who have walked the | Earth, how many who have died can we actually name off the top of | our heads? A few hundred at best? Maybe a few thousand if you're | a history buff? And of that group, how many will still be | remembered at the heat death of the universe? I'd bet money that | the answer is "none of them". | | So what's the point of trying to be remembered or leave a legacy? | It's a game that we're destined to lose, so why play? Personally, | I don't care how big my gravestone is, or whether I have my name | on the side of a building, or whether I have an element in the | periodic table named after me. Because it'll all come crumbling | down in the end. This too shall pass. | | And rather than being depressing, it's actually liberating. It | means I'm done climbing the corporate ladder. It means I can work | just hard enough to pay the bills at my day job, while leaving | ample free time to engage with creative pursuits that satisfy me. | It means I can have kids if it makes me happy, but I don't feel | pressured to out of a sense of "continuing the family line" or | some other bullshit. | | No matter how hard I try, literally nothing you or I do will be | remembered on a long enough timespan. Hell, I don't even know the | names of my great-grandparents, and chances are that, if I ever | have kids, my great-grandkids won't remember mine. It's like Carl | Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" quote[2]. I don't know what the meaning | of life is, but I'm pretty sure it's not "try to wrest some sort | of immortality by being remembered after you're gone". | | 1. https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever- | lived.... | | 2. https://www.planetary.org/worlds/pale-blue-dot | Bubble_Pop_22 wrote: | > so why play? | | Projected or perceived legacy after passing is correlated with | level of consumption while alive. | | Always has and always will be. Roman Emperors, Kings etc. they | got to be on coins and have monuments erected after them after | their death, AND at the same time they were the person with the | most conspicous consumption in the whole country while still | alive. | | Case in point: Queen Elizabeth II. | toomanyrichies wrote: | Consumption seems like a never-ending treadmill of its own. | I'm quite the foodie, but I've made peace with the fact that | there will always be more restaurants out there than I can | possibly hope to dine at during my lifetime. You could say | the same thing about music, art, etc. | | It's like Bud Fox said in the movie "Wall Street"- "How many | yachts can you water-ski behind?" | swatcoder wrote: | I don't see how that answers the question. Or are you saying | that the answer is "to consume a lot"? | Bubble_Pop_22 wrote: | To consume a lot of high quality things and experiences. | chasing wrote: | ...and then you have kids. | Razengan wrote: | Like every other organism ever ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-09-10 23:00 UTC)