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comment by Kafke
Kafke  ·  3979 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: On the topic of Quantum Suicide/Immortality...

    I've done this thinking. What it's left me with is, live life to the fullest because why not?

I've butted up against this line of thought quite a bit, and every time I just let it go and just get on with whatever I'm doing. But it's been nagging me for a while. You say live life to the fullest, but to the fullest of what? The most experiences? What defines an experience? How does one determine what is full and what is empty?

I've set some pretty arbitrary and random goals for myself. Stuff that I think might make me happy. At least, it'd surround me with things I enjoy. As to how I get there, I have a rough idea. But ultimately it's all pointless anyway. So I might as well just drift along and do what I enjoy.

As for your image, I'm not quite sure what it's supposed to mean. I'm bad with meanings. It kind of makes me thing that it's like those images that I mentioned in my post. That show that it's dark/bad/depressing, and as you gradually go forth it gets better. But as I said, I don't see how that's possible besides resorting back to the ignorance (or feigned ignorance) of the topic. That's not really rational or scientific.

    Incidentally, this is essentially where the logical trail that leads to cogito ergo sum starts.

Right right. I actually started at cogito ergo sum. My post above obviously started elsewhere, as that's where my mind was at the time of writing. But when I was younger, cogito ergo sum was definitely one of the things I thought about.





user-inactivated  ·  3979 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I raved and frothed a bit below after I wrote this. I'm thinking a bit.

That image is supposed to mean that we as a species are capable of greatness unparalleled, because we are. I think I'm special. I'm human. Humans wrote Principia. Humans split the atom. Humans can believe in things against all evidence, and sometimes they're right.

I haven't been alive very long, and I've seen some pretty awe-inspiring things. I trust I'll see more. And if the meaning of life reveals itself somewhere along the way, that's just gravy: if I died tomorrow I would feel pretty good about what I've experienced. I'd like to hang on to that feeling.

Kafke  ·  3979 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    That image is supposed to mean that we as a species are capable of greatness unparalleled, because we are. I think I'm special. I'm human.

In the grand scheme of things, humans are an obvious result. Infinite configurations. Infinite options. Each one with billions of galaxies, billions of stars, billions of planets. Each having the opportunity for life. This life then evolves into what survives. It then develops ways of communicating until it can think about it's own existence.

I mean, it has to happen. As it can't not happen. It did, so it obviously must. And it's probably happened billions if not trillions of other times as well.

    Humans can believe in things against all evidence,

True, but evidence is always correct (assuming it's not forged). Just because you derive the wrong conclusion doesn't mean that the evidence was wrong.

    I haven't been alive very long, and I've seen some pretty awe-inspiring things. I trust I'll see more. And if the meaning of life reveals itself somewhere along the way, that's just gravy: if I died tomorrow I would feel pretty good about what I've experienced.

I dunno. It's just all kind of bland and boring. I feel like if I had someone to talk to (in real life, not on hubski) things would be different. Perhaps I wouldn't care about this so much. But I don't see much point in seeing any particular awe-inspiring thing, as I'll just forget it in less than 5 years. I can't remember much of anything from before 3 years ago. And hell, I have a hard time remembering what happened yesterday.

I guess I'm just looking for satisfaction.

user-inactivated  ·  3978 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The greatest baseball player in the history of Japan is named Sadaharu Oh. He still holds the professional record for the most home runs hit in a baseball career. Now, all American professional baseball players spend their offseasons training, running, lifting weights and eating healthy foods, in the pursuit of excellence.

Sadaharu Oh, I once read, spent his offseasons meditating under a waterfall. I assume he was after a different sort of excellence.

That is not bland. Or boring. I first read about Sadaharu many more than five years ago, and I was just as awed then as I am now. Knowing this satisfies me, as does knowing that there are millions of ideas and truths that I don't yet grasp. We are talking at cross-purposes.