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A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

meltingasphalt.com

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Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

#71

Post by Natsu »

tim333 wrote: post #68
DigitalJack wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, barring space transit, humanity will be wiped out by the Sun long before the heat death of the universe, if not by some other catastrophe first. I am Christian as well, but I didn't think the article handled religion well. In Christianity, "God's chosen people" are the tribes of Israel, not Christians. In Christianity, the meaning of life is love, something you don't have to be a Christian to believe or underst…

If we can't build space transit in 100 million years we're not much of a species.

We have a finite energy budget to get out of here, it's not too clear to me how much we can take with us.

Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

#72

Post by ctrlalt_g »

marcosdumay wrote: post #58
ctrlalt_g wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many fundamental problems with hedonism, but hedonism avoids dealing with the problems because that's its nature.

Thus, no problem. The fact that if it fails to cause a fast death, it causes a big deal of suffering to the individual is not out of irony. But is still not a problem for it.

Case in point.

Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

#73

Post by ctrlalt_g »

delluminatus wrote: post #46
ctrlalt_g wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many fundamental problems with hedonism, but hedonism avoids dealing with the problems because that's its nature.

Like what?

Mercy killings and martyrdom (or any beliefs that optimize for the afterlife)

Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

#74

Post by Natsu »

rimantas wrote: post #66
njohnson41 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially if you assume that the scientific method is always valid--that all true statements can be determined empirically--you can't make statements like "Ultimate Meaning doesn't/does exist". If Ultimate Meaning cannot be defined, it cannot be tested for or measured, so no statements about it can be true or false. The answer to meaning would not be false, but null (or maybe 42). Just like 42, "atoms and the void"…

But if it cannot be measured it by definition cannot have any effect on reality so can be safely ignored.

I assume you mean that in the absolute sense, but one also has to realize that "cannot be measured" can also be a measure of our ability to measure things. So you certainly can have real effects that we're simply not able to measure.

And so in that sense, I'm not sure the premise follows, as some of the things we cannot measure are things like the conditions of the early universe, which certainly did effect[1] us.

[1] It affects us too, but I chose that word deliberately

Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

#75

Post by freerobots »

Mahn wrote: post #12
seletskiy wrote: post #4

I think, that meaning can be only defined in the case, when one is immortal. If I'm mortal, everything I do, good or bad, is meaningless for consciousness, because it will cease to exist and everything that will happen after death will have no effect on it. Any meaning, that's is defined while one is mortal is no more than illusion, in which people immerse themselves for whatever reason.

That's a bit pessimist, isn't it? It's a little bit like saying that living is not worth it because you'll die anyway. I think what we do is not about an indefinite future impact or goal, but about the how it impacts us and the people around us today, right now. I see meaning as something not like a hard drive, where you store data once you are done, but like RAM, where you read, write and modify on the fly, constant…

I go back and forth between your perspective and the previous posters perspective. In terms of the scope of the universe my behavior is impact-less but as I limit scope my impact grows.

I prefer this perspective because it avoids self importance - an attribute that in my opinion does more harm than good.

Re: A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

#79

Post by arthur_pryor »

rimantas wrote: post #66
njohnson41 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially if you assume that the scientific method is always valid--that all true statements can be determined empirically--you can't make statements like "Ultimate Meaning doesn't/does exist". If Ultimate Meaning cannot be defined, it cannot be tested for or measured, so no statements about it can be true or false. The answer to meaning would not be false, but null (or maybe 42). Just like 42, "atoms and the void"…

But if it cannot be measured it by definition cannot have any effect on reality so can be safely ignored.

sorry to ruin the joke if that's what it is, but this is sarcasm, right? (my point being: our instrumentation constantly gets better, and there are things that we can't now measure/might never be able to measure which have a material impact on things we can measure)
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