Existentialism

[Rusty Shackleford]

On the drive home from work today, I got real existential. This was after overhearing the conversation of two coworkers discussing the state of society and their uncertainties for the future.

And so I started to think, and think, and think, and think, until I arrived at something resembling a conclusion. The universe is based on paradoxes. Everything one sees and hears and feels and touches and thinks is a paradox, in and of itself. The only certainties are the uncertainties. This is nothing new, and most likely has been said tens of thousands of times before, but the important thing to me was that the belief in the paradoxical nature of the universe is why I am always hopeful for the future. Because to me, a paradox represents possibility, and possibility means the potential for conscious choice, and choice is the reason for existence.

I could go on and on for paragraphs regarding my inner monologue on the hour I spent in traffic on the way home, and the arguments I brought up and refuted, the points and counterpoints, the topics I strayed into from tangents, etc. Rather, I'm just going to leave it at my paradox/possibility thing and pose the question to you guys.

I'd like to know your views on the nature of the world/humanity/nature/past/present/future/self, and how you apply these sorts of thoughts and musings to your everyday life, and maybe more. Because why not?

 

maybe i inhaled too many paint fumes while listening to this but who cares i feel pretty great right now and i can hear the sound of yellow

[mirkoloio]

Bluespace

[Foolamancer]

The universe is based on paradoxes. Everything one sees and hears and feels and touches and thinks is a paradox, in and of itself. The only certainties are the uncertainties.

 

 

erryday

[Guest]

I am strong believer that the universe is deterministic, a chain of cause and consequence. Ifs and Thens, to put it in terms of programming. We are not some outside force which causes effects on it, shaping it with our will and action. Our will and action is part of the universe and has been determined in a chain of events started with the unverse or before.

However, from our point of view, it is underministic, random. We fear for the future, as we are part of. We fear it because we don't know our role in it. Because each one of us is an equally important cog in its seemingly random design. By what, by who and why it was designed, that's what religions try to answer. It is of no consequence. Knowing what and how it will go has no barring on its flow. Do not hit yourself over past mistakes, because this is how it was meant to be.

I wish I could tell you that if you fight for it hard enough, everything will be well and fine, but the truth is, everything is equally well. There is no good or bad ending. The universe doesn't care and it never will.

In the end, I can just say that thoughts like this shouldn't discourage you, because, with all this out, our work still seems to make a difference. A true paradox, one that stems from our limited understanding. So, bother not yourself with this questions. Their pointlessness it aparent.

[Gollee]

The futures are limitless and ever-changing, fates and fortunes are useless in the face of the endless possibilities.

But.

In the end, right down to the wire, everything that will happen, will happen. If I had to decide tomorrow to do one of two things, I could choose either, right up to the final moment, when I couldn't.

Fortune-telling and foreseering the future are pointless, useless and a waste of time, but the future is determined before us, it's just impossible to discern, so it might as well be unbound and free to change.

As we can never be 100% certain on event.

[Tainavaa]

Anything that ever was, is, and will be can be determined with mathematics.

Everything in the universe is a composition of functions. And it's balanced. Even what we think are part of these functions. There are countless variables in this ultimate function and each sub-function can interact with eachother when we observe the interactions in the universe and the variables - or output of those functions depending on circumstance - affect the output and/or variables of the functions they interact with. That's not to say we have no decision. We are variables in these functions just as smaller parts of us all the way down to the subatomic level are part of it as well and each one may or may not affect what occurs at the conscious level. We can alter the variables of the other functions, and therefore the output. Anything that happens in this universe and in this existence happens for the sake of balancing the "ultimate function".

There is no good. There is no evil. There is only balance.

[Gollee]

There is no good. There is no evil. There is only balance.

 

Have a balance druid.

 

I also agree with you.

The rivers of blood spilled in conquest over the millenia, the vast number of people who have lived, died, then passed into dust; all of our Wonders and achievements.

Compare them to anything on a cosmic scale, and they are so insignificant as to be nothing.

[Tainavaa]

I prefer resto.

 

 

One thing I've noticed about your beliefs however, it's impossible to determine the outcome of something. I think it is possible if you know the numbers and the functions in the system. Of course this is pretty much outside the realm of plausibility for us as humans to learn it BUT I THINK IT'S THERE.

[Gollee]

Inis is a resto/balance

Yeah, if you know everything, and I mean 100% omniscience (or however you spell it), including everything in other dimensions and universes, as their laws of physics may allow them to mess with the outcome, even by the smallest degree.

Then you might be able to predict sonething with 100% accuracy, but without total knowledge, you can never say fully that the things you don't know can't effect the outcome.

[Tainavaa]

That's Inis? Mine is Skyler, like my character from Starbound. Except he's a furry instead of a bird.

It IS a whole lot of information. Like. A LOT of information. That I don't think is even fathomable to us.

[Gollee]

Mmm, It's the original Inis, from which all others are made.

Maybe a super quantum computer could do it.

Though all that reminds me of is that old story about some scientists making the universe's best super computer, and asking it "Is there a god?" To which it replied, "There is now."

[Tainavaa]

But as a wise man once told me, "A god who holds the record for eating the most skateboards is greater than a god who does not hold that record."

[Gollee]

......

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Your wise man sounds like Mr Drugs.

Serious note, if a god is a true god, they are omnipotent, therefore they can just make it so he is greater, or that the mortal never ate skateboards, or that skate boards don't exist.

The possibilities are endless.

[Tainavaa]

I was kidding, it's from an XKCD comic. I won't get into the discussion of gods and religion though. Just gonna. Back off now.

[Gollee]

Yuuup.

[Foolamancer]

......

......

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Your wise man sounds like Mr Drugs.

Serious note, if a god is a true god, they are omnipotent, therefore they can just make it so he is greater, or that the mortal never ate skateboards, or that skate boards don't exist.

The possibilities are endless.

Or he could make and eat an infinite number of objects that don't exist.

That's the wonderful thing about omnipotence. No one ever said that you have to make sense.

[Tainavaa]

I identify as an omnipotence and that offends me.

[Foolamancer]

I identify as an omnipotence and that offends me.

 

I identify as a fleeting moment of righteous indignation and this offends me.

Stop appropriating emotion culture.

[Tainavaa]

I swear if you don't check your abstract privilege I am going to check it for you. You don't want that.

[Frances]

broccoli are actually colonies of tiny aliens with murder on their minds

[Foolamancer]

I swear if you don't check your abstract privilege I am going to check it for you. You don't want that.

 

U wot m8

Il shag ya nan right propa swar on me mams great uncle trevs grave

EDIT: all posters be advised, this thread is approaching critical levels of profundity. Any further posts made risk instigating an EK-class global enlightenment scenario.