Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

It's death

jesseduffield.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 88 posts

Re: It's death

#41

Post by NBJack »

Shellban wrote: post #38
jadar wrote: post #33

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Ecclesiastes is an interesting one. It goes chapter by chapter, trying to find meaning in life through process of elimination, trying education, hedonism, labor, and wealth. While some things (usually wisdom) bring about more joy in the interim, he declares that they all will lose their charm rather quickly. In the end, all joy from these will leave us before death. Solomon's last hope for fulfillment lies in the ete…

Solomon seems to give a glimpse into a life of "what happens if the only challenges you have are the ones you freely pick?" He had everything one could dream of and more, including an unprecedented era of peace.

Yet he struggled to pass the time. Having the equivalent of billions of [insert favorite currency here], most folks fantasize about the ideal life. We often believe all of our immediate problems go away, free to do whatever we want. Yet, at least in Solomon's case, he seemed to become incredibly fed up with these grand projects and plans of his own devise.

While I certainly wouldn't mind a fraction of that wealth myself, I do recall my college weekends. Free to spend time however I pleased, with my basic needs met and no homework looming, I spent hours playing my favorite video games. And yet, no matter how good they were, I remember how dull and boring they eventually became in only a few hours.

Re: It's death

#42

Post by BLKNSLVR »

canyp wrote: post #29
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to say it will be similar to the experience prior to birth / conception, ie. we were nothing, and to nothing we shall return. It's a scary feeling if you can grasp it. Grasping non-existence from within existence is difficult, I've consciously tried to do it and succeeded a couple of times, but it's fleeting and both times it affected my breathing and heart rate in a similar way to fear or panic or pain.

I go through that exercise of visualizing the void and it is fascinating and terrifying at the same time, especially if you do it before going to sleep. That being said, you can't just assume that existence is bounded by your living memories. You might as well have been everything instead of nothing prior to being spawned and you just don't remember it.

> you can't just assume that existence is bounded by your living memories

I was going to raise that, but couldn't find a short enough way to describe it properly. Something like:

Existence beyond what you can actually remember doesn't matter because it's outside any bounds of practical discussion; it should be excluded from consideration. The same way it's impossible to predict anything 'before the big bang' because we only have 'after the big bang' as useful evidence. There is no way to verify any continuity if you can't remember it or if there is no evidence of it. There's no guarantee you can even comprehend what it could be, 'you' as a concept may not even exist and it's unlikely to be relate-able to anything in this living world. Maybe you return to being 0.00001% of the collective consciousness of the universe, or any other crackpot thing anyone wants to suggest. Flying Spaghetti Monster.".

Re: It's death

#43

Post by BLKNSLVR »

albatross79 wrote: post #39
BLKNSLVR wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to say it will be similar to the experience prior to birth / conception, ie. we were nothing, and to nothing we shall return. It's a scary feeling if you can grasp it. Grasping non-existence from within existence is difficult, I've consciously tried to do it and succeeded a couple of times, but it's fleeting and both times it affected my breathing and heart rate in a similar way to fear or panic or pain.

It's very easy to grasp, do you remember what it was like before your first memory? No? That's what it's like.

Nope. That's a long way from grasping it. That's seeing it from a distance and understanding the general shape.

I may just be defining 'grasp' differently to you though.

Re: It's death

#44

Post by tclover »

It's a funny story if you look at the end of life from a materialistic viewpoint on the origin of consciousness, but that’s not the only perspective.

Re: It's death

#45

Post by 8note »

freetime2 wrote: post #14

This story has a strong "life sucks then you die" vibe going for it. And the afterlife also sucks apparently (although I don't personally believe in an afterlife). Hopelessness and injustice seem to be the current zeitgeist - at least for anyone who spends a lot of time online. And I get it, there's plenty to be unhappy about. But my counter-argument is that it's possible to do things in life that you're proud of. An…

> why aren't there more people pursuing alternative lifestyles?

generally land costs

Re: It's death

#47

Post by weregiraffe »

jadar wrote: post #33

“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Which God? Yahweh, Jesus, Allah? Brahma, Amaterasu, Ahura Mazda?

Re: It's death

#48

Post by ndhbxyd »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #23
ndhbxyd wrote: post #19

Most people/groups are taught How to survive. Many coast on just that knowledge and die without the WHY to survive question ever coming up. But if it does come up for you at some point in life, know that different philosophies have different answers. These days you can find summaries of all of them neatly complied like a restaurant menu thanks to LLMs. People are very diffefent so you find the philosophy that fits yo…

I had the experience recently of asking an LLM about the Buddhist view on reincarnation, and then hearing its views on what this means for its own existence. I'm not sure any of it left me feeling better about death, but it was a fascinating conversation.

Its a beautiful thing to be able to have these chats. In the past you had to spend a lot of time and resources searching for the person not just with the knowledge but the patience, time and capacity to communicate it well. Open Yale courses has great free phil courses, and then chating about that content with an LLM adds a whole lot more to depth.

Re: It's death

#49

Post by _factor »

freetime2 wrote: post #14

This story has a strong "life sucks then you die" vibe going for it. And the afterlife also sucks apparently (although I don't personally believe in an afterlife). Hopelessness and injustice seem to be the current zeitgeist - at least for anyone who spends a lot of time online. And I get it, there's plenty to be unhappy about. But my counter-argument is that it's possible to do things in life that you're proud of. An…

It’s not the lifestyle that makes some people unhappy, it’s the knowledge that there is suffering around the world they can do near nothing to stop.

Not everyone frames their happiness solely on conditions within their own sphere. Knowledge comes with responsibility.

Re: It's death

#50

Post by ricardobeat »

SoftTalker wrote: post #32
Yen wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reminded of the lyrics from Pink Floyd's Time: "And then one day you find Ten years have got behind you no one told you when to run you missed the starting gun" The longer you live, the more tiny little mistakes you make. Things that at the time you could have done better, if you'd known, if you'd been a bit more careful. And these weigh on you, emotionally, pretty consistently. And while it's pretty absurd, in t…

I've accomplished nothing of note ever. Most people don't. They just live their lives, trying to get by as best they can.

I don't know if that is true. For large swaths of the population, raising a child is their biggest accomplishment. Justifiably so.

Other accomplishments of note might be: a single conversation that helped someone change. Little acts that made the world a tiny bit better. Having brought happiness to other people. I like to think that is the meaning of not wasting your time – not just measuring your life's worth with a science/capitalism lens.

Post reply on HN