[HN Gopher] Living Like Nothing Matters
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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
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