Good. I have a big investment in a star and sometimes I worry about inflation.
Where can I sign up for starcoin, I've heard it's all the rage on reddit.
The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
131–140 of 213 posts
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tech moves so fast, I can’t think of a termination event that couldn’t be solved with 1M years of exponential growth. Even with the Big Freeze or Big Crunch of the universe, there’s at least some hope that some currently unknown science, energy source, etc. might be accessible to us in 1M years that could delay or reduce the severity of the event. But, let’s say there’s a an event that will somehow destroy our entire…
The total arrogance of people in technology lol. We're still just sentient specs of dust abiding by the laws of the universe on a spec of dust planet. Writing CRUD apps, flying to Mars, or driving an electric car, isn't going to save the universe.
Well, we know which camp you are in.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#133Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thinking about this stuff is what prompted my thinking about things like suicide. The Universe is so vast. So much space, most of it with only the barest wisp of gas. Most of the solar systems we see in the night sky may not have life (we don't know yet). And yet here we are, a rare event in a vast Universe. In the end it doesn't matter what you do. What you accomplish or did not accomplish. What awards were won or l…
It helps to think of time as a dimension. Sure, you, anyone or anything will not last measured on this dimension. But it still has a span. You would not call objects meaningless or less beautiful just because they physically end at some point in space. Why is time so different? It is just the fourth dimension of their shape, giving them a more unique character.
Because for most of that dimension, there won't be anyone around to consider the spans meaningful or beautiful.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.
Thinking about this stuff is what prompted my thinking about things like suicide. The Universe is so vast. So much space, most of it with only the barest wisp of gas. Most of the solar systems we see in the night sky may not have life (we don't know yet). And yet here we are, a rare event in a vast Universe. In the end it doesn't matter what you do. What you accomplish or did not accomplish. What awards were won or l…
I agree fully, but in general, suicide isn't a conclusion reached by completely logical thought. Sadly, there are usually other factors at play negatively influencing the thought process.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Albert Camus wrote a beautiful (IMHO, at least) book about it, The Myth of Sisyphus . His point, as I understand it, is that nothing matters in the sense that the universe is vast and empty does not care what happens to you or me. But that also means we get to choose what matters to us . Life has no meaning, but it has meaning to us , and we can, in a way, choose what we want it to mean. I agree, I find this perspect…
In this framework, Stalin and Kim Jong-Il created their own meaning and no one has a basis for saying what they chose is worse than anyone else's choice. To many of us, that is horribly demoralizing.
Sure they do -- I can pick any basis I want for saying their ideas are worse.
I can make that basis arbitrary (because I don't like their names), or I can ground it in appeals to things that people value widely. One can get lost in the idea that things are meaningless on a purely narrative/mental basis, but you're embedded in a biological matrix that will very likely re-orient you on the idea that some things matter if you pay attention to it. If nothing else, everyone acts as if suffering matters and acts to reduce it personally and in their close circles, so that's a pretty solid baseline to engage. There are questions about what it means to reduce suffering and perhaps even people like Stalin thought they were reducing it, but once you've agreed that reducing suffering is meaningful then you have a standard and can talk in terms of observed results and dynamics around it.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a video on that. The end of the universe: https://youtu.be/uD4izuDMUQA This is so weird to think that for most of its life the universe will be empty and cold. Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness.
> Like what's even the point of all this, of life, of us, if in the end nothing matters, everything decays into nothingness. I don't understand this reasoning. If the universe had a different end state, or if it collapsed in on itself only to erupt again, would that make any difference to the meaning of your life or that of our civilization? Probably not, because things still end. It seems to me that you'd arrive at…
> They have meaning because we give them meaning. Isn't that liberating?
Liberating from what? There being some objective or higher meaning to it all? Would that be oppressive?
While I agree that we give things meaning, it's all rather arbitrary and empty to think about it that way.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thinking about this stuff is what prompted my thinking about things like suicide. The Universe is so vast. So much space, most of it with only the barest wisp of gas. Most of the solar systems we see in the night sky may not have life (we don't know yet). And yet here we are, a rare event in a vast Universe. In the end it doesn't matter what you do. What you accomplish or did not accomplish. What awards were won or l…
It helps to think of time as a dimension. Sure, you, anyone or anything will not last measured on this dimension. But it still has a span. You would not call objects meaningless or less beautiful just because they physically end at some point in space. Why is time so different? It is just the fourth dimension of their shape, giving them a more unique character.
I came up with similar thoughts after losing someone I loved. Helped immensely to think of time as a dimension. Even though I'm trapped on a one way course, those previous moments still exist. Even though the person I loved is dead and I'll never talk to her again, those moments of her life will always exist. As far as I know, nothing can ever erase it.
There will always be a place in the universe where she's alive and happy. A place that I'll probably never be able to visit but still is immensely comforting knowing it exists.
I guess that's my version of a secular afterlife. Not entirely comforting as all the moments of suffering still exist too, somewhere. But still, it means there's a permanence to even the most impermanent things.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t see this. Many people in my country are religious, and believe that God (the Christian one) has a plan for them—-the exact opposite of nihilism.
This does often manifest in what is essentially nihilism, though — e.g. “I’m not taking the vaccine; if God’s will is that I die from COVID then so be it.”
That’s a good point, I hadn’t considered that.
Re: The universe has already made almost all the stars it will ever make
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean the universe is so incredibly vast that even if we figure out how to travel at the speed of light, we'll only ever get to see a small fraction of it. I don't think we'll have to worry about running out of places to explore.
So, about that. One of the weird things about General Relativity is that if we COULD travel at or near the speed of light, then time dilation and length contraction will conspire to enable a trio to the end of the observable universe in 30 years. So we could definitely explore the universe, we just have no way to share what we discover with our friends back home.
For the timelines we are discussing here, sure there will lots of new discoveries in physics. And who knows may be somebody will toss out what we know today and come up with something new, where none of these limitations we know today apply.