/sci/ - Science & Math

It's a meaningless, purposeless, careless Universe. I accept it for what it is and give meaning, purpose, and care to what I must.

You're nothing but a biological machine so escape it by killing yourself. If you had these thoughts in the first place then you have the ability to overcome survival instinct for just a brief second.

lol nerds

>>11513553
This is something that I've contemplated for a while. Personally, I believe that anybody who isn't afraid of death should be. It's simply unnatural to be apathetic to your death, it is one of the most fundamental drives humans have.

Despite this, I've come to a revelation recently that I've taken great comfort in, and I hope that by writing it out, I will give you and anybody else reading it the same comfort. This requires a few things to be accepted:

1. You must admit that by the conservation of matter, the atoms which comprise "you" will never cease to exist (excluding nuclear fission, which is uncommon). This means that upon your death, "you" will simply take another form. Your atoms will break down. Some will enter the atmosphere, some will be consumed by other organisms, and some will become one with the Earth. This means that the atoms and particles which create your consciousness will not cease to exist, they will simply take another form. This, in my opinion, is reincarnation. In addition to this, you are constantly shedding and replacing atoms and particles, so you partake in this process even when you're alive.

2. This one is a bit harder to come to terms with, but I think I have a strong argument for it: consciousness is a transcendent fractal. The argument for this statement is as follows: every conscious being interacts with other conscious beings to construct higher versions of consciousness. An example this is the internet. The internet is a like a brain, but instead of neurons it has individual humans, and instead of axons it has means of communication like this message board. (1)

>>11513961
Of course the internet does not function precisely like a human brain, but the internet is a loose connection of humans, all contributing to a mountain of knowledge, opinions, art, ect... If we look to the most fundamental building block of the universe, point particles, we find that they are (in a sense) conscious as well. Electrons, for example, exist in an undefined state until they are observed. An entangled electron is aware of observation and jumps from a state defined by a probability distribution to a defined state once it is observed. This isn't just a quirk of our mathematical description of quantum mechanics. Electrons are aware of the fact that they have been observed. If you don't believe me, we've already exploited this in quantum key distribution, a type of cryptography in which we can tell if a person has spied on information because their observation will have changed the states of entangled electrons. If you accept that electrons (and other fundamental particles) are just a binary form a consciousness, then it follows that every other form of matter is constructed by a particular arrangement of conscious things, in the same way that the internet is constructed of conscious humans. I will take it a step further and say that it also follows that everything in the universe is an expression of consciousness which takes different forms. Just because humans can't grasp the nature of a universal consciousness, just as electrons could never grasp human consciousness, does not mean that it doesn't exist. We can zoom out further, to the entire universe, and claim that it is by default a conscious entity because it is made up of conscious entities which work in coordination following the physical laws of nature.


This is a bit of a bomb of information, and I understand how schizophrenic it may sound. I'm not even fully convinced of it. However, after quite a bit of contemplating, I've decided that it is the most reasonable explanation. (2)

>>11513965
This means that while death signifies the end of your consciousness, it is just a transitional period from one consciousness to the other. You will never cease to be conscious because your consciousness is nothing but a construct of other consciousnesses, just as every other thing is the universe is. Death is just one stop on the infinite and universally connected train ride through time.

It may be tragic that the emergent nature of human consciousness will cease once you die, but the sum total of all of what makes up you will always be there, contributing to the grand consciousness that is the universe. I hope this gives you comfort on the wild ride that is a human life. I love you, just as a love every other thing which is the fabric of our universe. The only time to fear death is when you are able to prevent it. Until then, resign yourself to the fact that you are a cog in the most beautiful machine.

(3)

>>11513553
I masturbate.

>>11513553
Dude you’re simply a gene machine having a drama filled human experience. More troubling should be that the space between the nucleus and particles in you atoms ate of a vast distance - your not even close to solid and secondly your cells are only 20% or so you. 80% of you is made of non human cells. So your most rly vacant space and the cells that actually are you a few and far between. Then answer me this what are you exactly?

Maybe a blob of slime mold imagining an existence as a human because if your not solid and not you, it would seem the requisite parts to be you are absent therefore something else might better explain you awareness of being a self at all.

>>11513553
Sorry phone post

>>11513992
You are 100% correct.

You are here to evolve.
You can work up or down the ladder.
Your job is to conform by intuiting the basic nature of the universe - so that you evolve up. Don’t be deceived by bad things that appear good. All the religions currently popular support this with their tomes.

>>11513992
reminds me of the first page in gravity's rainbow

>>11513553
Have you ever had to undergo a surgery (or endoscopy) that requires anesthesia? Such that at one moment you are awake, talking with the doctor and waiting for the anesthesia to affect you, and at the next moment you find yourself awake in some kind of post-surgery room?

I see death as this interim. It is a moment of pure lack of consciousness. Think about it: you only know something happened because you woke up in a different place, and you only know it is a different place because you remember that you were someone else before. If the doctors placed you in a white room, without anything that you could use to track the passage of time, you wouldn't even know that something happened if you weren't feeling the dizziness that the anesthesia produces even after the surgery is over.

So, imagine: how would it feel to be in the interim? Or in other words, what if you never woke up after the anesthesia affected you?

I feel like such a destiny wouldn't be so bad, because I would literally be unconscious and wouldn't feel anything, so that brings me some sort of solace. But at the same time, I hate this theory because I don't want to loose the ability of experiencing reality, which I wouldn't be able to do being in this interim.

I'm still trying to cope with it, every now and then I find myself thinking about death... So I try to live my best life, to enjoy it as much as I can, and by studying fundamental quantities of Nature (what is mass? What is energy?) I hope to understand it better and end my time not feeling like I wasted it.

So, Carpe Diem anon. I hope my post helped you in any way.

P.S.: I found an image that for me depicts almost perfectly what death represents. I'm gonna post it later if the thread is still up

>>11514827
This is a good summary of what I was trying to say here.
>>11513992
>>11513965
>>11513961
It's quite a compliment that von Braun had a similar belief.