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

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  ·  3978 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.