Is the "young programmer" you mentioned Jacob Appelbaum?
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#62> 3. Ethics matter. I don't believe there's any life after this one, but I find myself ruminating on what I've done. In 2015, I had a lot of interaction with a startup incubator you know well, and ended up sitting in the discussions and planning around banning and erasing a young programmer we considered a threat to our financial interests, due to his concerns about authoritarianism in technology. In retrospect, he w…
Something disturbingly similar happened to me in 2015. It took me a LONG TIME to build my life back after that. There are STILL certain opportunities that are off limits to me and likely always will be. I’m pretty sure I know who you are.
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#63If you want to know the key to Heaven is asking God for forgiveness for your sins with the intention of becoming better. Repent and believe in the Gospel, go to the traditional Latin mass if you can
This is not the right context to try to push your religious views on others.
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#64Good luck with the operation! I haven’t been in this situation but there’s every possibility that you’ll come through this and to prepare for your live after perhaps you can think of a few small changes that would improve how you feel about your life?
I’d think that would also give you peace of mind. Sending you strength.
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#65>In 2015, I had a lot of interaction with a startup incubator you know well, and ended up sitting in the discussions and planning around banning and erasing a young programmer we considered a threat to our financial interests, due to his concerns about authoritarianism in technology. In retrospect, he was harmless, but an example had to be made. The decision was made to ban him here, try to get him fired though I don…
Sociopaths also get sick.
Just because someone might be dying, it doesn't make them nice people.
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#66> 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…
The universe is meaningless and the world is cursed. Sentient beings are the ones ascribing meaning to the meaningless, uncaring universe. You have only a short amount of time while you can do this. Once life is finished, you just become inert matter.
Curiously enough, I don't think this invites nihilism. The opposite, really. The difference between kindness and malevolence exists because we perceive a difference, and give meaning to actions - they are either kind or malevolent.
If we can give meaning to things, it is imperative that we do so, and act accordingly. It is out little defiance to the great enveloping cosmic nothing.
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#67> 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…
The universe is meaningless and the world is cursed. Sentient beings are the ones ascribing meaning to the meaningless, uncaring universe. You have only a short amount of time while you can do this. Once life is finished, you just become inert matter. Curiously enough, I don't think this invites nihilism. The opposite, really. The difference between kindness and malevolence exists because we perceive a difference, an…
> The universe is meaningless and the world is cursed.
Certainly a possibility.
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#68> 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…
When friends and family and acquaintances think of your name after you are gone, will they miss you? Then congratulations, you probably lived a good life and contributed in positive ways to humanity. I guess the question is: Do you want your time here to have impacted others in a positive way or not?
> Then congratulations, you probably lived a good life and contributed in positive ways to humanity.
This seems thin gruel.
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#69> 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 or some super-being would create any more explicit meaning for an individual life.
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#70I nearly died a few weeks ago and it's amazing how much of a shift it has caused in my mental state and overall outlook. Good luck on Monday.