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Re: undefined

#71

Post by mlrtime »

gtest wrote: post #55
endgame wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would it matter if there is no life after this one? If there is no life after this one, maybe you should just "get over it". Because for as long as we are capable of caring, we should care that other people have to live with the consequences of our actions.

> we should care... But that's my question: if there is no afterlife, why?

Are you asking really to ask, or is this a entrance into a philosophical debate?

The answers so far are a little snark, however this topic has been debated for a long time and most of the pro/cons can be listed rather easily.

Re: undefined

#72

Post by mlrtime »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #69
smitty1e wrote: post #19

> 3. Ethics matter. I don't believe there's any life after this one Serious, non-troll question: why bother? If there isn't any scope outside of the current perceived existence, and we're all so much "smart dirt", then the difference between kindness and malevolence seems moot. Note: I do subscribe to an explicit meaning to life, so this is posed more to express bewilderment at the alternative than reveal any anxiety…

You seem to assume that you can only have a meaning to life if there is an afterlife. Most people judge themselves against a narrative that matters to them. Most people do not want to cast themselves as a villain in their story. You may ask "but what does it matter if we are all dirt". It matters to them, even if there is no godlike perspective above it all. To be honest, I'm not actually sure why having an afterlife…

One can make the argument that certain religious practices would help a person realize what OP is feeling all the time about morals, not just in front of their death bed.

Lots of replies here about after life, and just doing the right thing because you're supposed to or "empathy", yet there are a set of people like OP who only observe this when their life is put in front of them for review, maybe they do need religion?

Re: undefined

#73

Post by card_zero »

I've been reading an old manga called Ikigami: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigami:_The_Ultimate_Limit

The premise is that people are randomly notified of their imminent death, and variously decide that they have to make amends for things they did wrong, or make up for lost time, or stand up to their enemies, or do whatever they're most proud of, or make arrangements to provide for others, or create something for posterity.

Personally I think mortality makes everybody slightly crazy, and is best ignored, so I wouldn't want to react in any major way. I'd probably record the current state of my projects, in case somebody else felt like taking over. So I'd die doing admin chores.

Re: undefined

#74

Post by sixtyj »

anonymous_ibex wrote: post #60
sixtyj wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imho that cancelling part was about “I still think about it, I don’t have it closed in my mind”. It was not about cancelling a specific person therefore he didn’t mention the name.

[dead]

Yup. Exactly. Most people including me have (had) to learn how to not being afraid speak up.

Otherwise unresolved issues catch up with a person until the end of life.

So everytime someone tells that I am too much activist I answer “yes, because I think I need to speak up so I don’t have to have unfinished stuff in my head”. And after ten years when we meet they ask me if I remember …something… And I tell them I don’t as it was finished and I don’t live in the past.

Ram Dass would appreciate it. Be here and now.

Re: undefined

#76

Post by antiriad »

So, basically, it all boils down to this: Don’t be a miserable person. People will pretend to like you or care about you because "it’s their job" (just look at LinkedIn: no one complains about anything; people are even afraid to point out the elephant in the room).

The problem is that systems like incubators and financial structures reward this kind of behavior. Look at the billionaires we have now (Elon, Donald...) and what they’re doing to the world—making it a worse place.

To everyone: Remember, you will die someday. Think about whether the world you leave behind is better or worse because of you. No matter how monumental your achievements, you will leave this world, and your legacy will fade over time (just as it did in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, and even in more modern societies). Look at who is remembered and what remains of them. We don’t realize it because a century seems like an eternity to us.

Re: undefined

#77

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

Regarding point 3, instead of writing such posts on HN, you'd do better by contacting that person, apologizing, and making sure you make up for all wrong you did.

I wish your surgery goes well.

Re: undefined

#78

Post by kldg »

Good luck, bud. I found I wasted a lot of time in my youth and only stopped as I aged; took time to find purpose, I think. That purpose also evolves and becomes both "wider" and "kinder" with age, I think; to move from zealotry into a kind of zen progression.

Re: undefined

#79

Post by treetalker »

Follow up with a post one year from now. Tell us then how you will have acted in the world since the surgery — with regard to past, present, and future.

Apropos, I recommend Taleb's Skin in the Game to both you and all others on the thread who may not have read it. (If you haven't, perhaps during your recovery.) But, as Taleb points out, talk is cheap, and so is reading and living vicariously through texts. Actions speak louder than words, and we must do and act in the world, not merely chat about it.

Re: undefined

#80

Post by smitty1e »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #69
smitty1e wrote: post #19

> 3. Ethics matter. I don't believe there's any life after this one Serious, non-troll question: why bother? If there isn't any scope outside of the current perceived existence, and we're all so much "smart dirt", then the difference between kindness and malevolence seems moot. Note: I do subscribe to an explicit meaning to life, so this is posed more to express bewilderment at the alternative than reveal any anxiety…

You seem to assume that you can only have a meaning to life if there is an afterlife. Most people judge themselves against a narrative that matters to them. Most people do not want to cast themselves as a villain in their story. You may ask "but what does it matter if we are all dirt". It matters to them, even if there is no godlike perspective above it all. To be honest, I'm not actually sure why having an afterlife…

> Most people judge themselves against a narrative that matters to them. Most people do not want to cast themselves as a villain in their story.

This is a reasonably assertion as far as it goes.

At the risk of being a dripping faucet, I'm poking at "Why?", given an inevitable return to the dust from which all came.

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