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215 points XzetaU8 | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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bigmattystyles ◴[] No.45076621[source]
I wonder if as a species we can ever get more comfortable with death. We’re built not to be I realize, and we should never be for those that are young but I feel like we should be ok with living 80ish or more years and then clocking out. That being said, I’m not cool with the idea of dying when good, but when I’m in a major depressive episode, the idea of immortality is terrifying.
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echelon ◴[] No.45076731[source]
You're not dreaming big enough.

"Accept death, it's beautiful" is cope. It's not beautiful. It's suboptimal horror.

I find it offensive that so many "universe experiencing itself" entities willingly accept a return to dust. Our sun dies, and with it everything on this planet will become metal inclusions in a decaying solar body. You know what doesn't matter in light of that? All other perspectives. Every other conception of death and meaning tends to zero.

I accept death personally. It's 99.9999manynines likely. But I would love to spend my limited energy trying to conquer it or to push forward the societal envelope. Something from earth should conquer the vastness of spacetime and physics.

It's not like how any of us spends our time matters anyway. We're all already dead, geologically timespan speaking.

And who knows. Maybe the gods of the future will reverse simulate the light cone down to your femtosecond neurotransmitter flux. Maybe that's you right now. And maybe they'll pull you forward into an eternity of bliss instead of a read-only memory or sadistic eternal hell simulation. But probably none of those things given how more likely we are to accept doom.

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1. saulpw ◴[] No.45076935[source]
Consider that some people have gotten past it, and that it's not a "cope". Enlightenment is real even if it horrifies you because you aren't there yet.
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2. kiba ◴[] No.45080041[source]
Sure if it helps you sleep at night, but it also leads to a lot of unhealthy behaviors such as drinking, smoking, and not taking care of yourself.
3. tick_tock_tick ◴[] No.45080067[source]
Enlightenment is cope. It's literally coping so hard you enjoy the cope itself.
4. username135 ◴[] No.45080077[source]
I've visited that space before. Its greatest tragedy isn't the ideas it births, but how seductive the nihilism becomes. You recognize its smallness once you've outgrown it.
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5. saulpw ◴[] No.45080546[source]
If it's nihilism, it's not enlightenment! There is still/more meaning in impermanence.