Sorry I’m depressed af and need answers. Are y’all even real? What if y’all are just part of the program to torture me? What if this is a test? What if this is a VR simulation and the societal collapse is just moral character test to see if I would be do anything about it? Like imaginr a society in the far future like 26th century and in a history class where people are wondering “why didn’t the 21st century humans rise up against their oppressors” and then this VR simulation is just testing the students “what would you have done”
(Sorry for the bizzare question, its just brain chemicals acting weird today :P)
In the big picture and when you realize the vast universe that surrounds us and how short of time we’ve been on earth, we are just a spec in time and none of us are important. Just live your life and try to be kind to others while you’re here. I find comfort in knowing we are all the same and we are nothing.
We are important. We are special. The most important thing in your life is how you make others feel. If you can give yourself someone, then you should.
Nothing else is important. Nothing else matters. All we are is dust in the wind.
Are y’all even real?
Upvote this man!
First existential crisis? Don’t worry, they get easier after a few. The answer is simple once you learn how to embrace it: it doesn’t matter. Real, fake, it’s completely irrelevant. Go get high, play Halo, get some ice cream, and let somebody who gets paid to think about this stuff deal with it.
First?
Oh no lolol.
Its like my 10th
It may very well all be fake and you’re living in a simulation.
That doesn’t matter though. It doesn’t change anything. That simulation is all you’ve got so you either play along or you end it for yourself. The only thing that is undeniable is consciousness - the fact of experience. That it feels like something to be. Any story about your existence that you add on top of that is just thinking. It’s appereances in consciousness.
Pretty much what everyone else is saying as far as it can’t really be proven. Everything you experience is your brains interpretation of the stimuli it received from outside the body.
One of the few ways I rationalize it for myself is: there’s no fucking way at all that I am the “main character.” I’m the most pathetic, least important thing to have ever disgraced this earth with his existence. I’m not in a simulation that is centered around me, that universe would be absolutely insane.
I think I’m slightly above you on the simulation leaderboard.
Except that your evaluation of yourself only holds under the framework of ideals provided to you from childhood by your environment. If you are in a simulation, you have no possible insight into what is considered good or interesting outside the simulation.
True, but if someone has determined I’m interesting enough to waste resources on then I fear for their job stability. Someone’s getting fired lol
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter. If you have no way of discerning what’s “real” or not, just play the game and try to enjoy it as much as you can without disrupting others’ enjoyment.
Maybe that’s just what THEY want you to think/j
It unironically might be! But if I can’t do anything about it either way, I’m okay with it.
Yeah me too lol, it is what it is
Exactly, carpe them diems, we’ve got few enough to waste them worrying about stuff we can’t fix.
It’s just a ride
I struggled with a lot of this myself until I stumbled on Taoism. It teaches that you can only interact with one moment. Now. The future and the past are an illusion that can easily slow you down.
Trying to understand the why will ultimately lead to no answers. A big part of this challenge was the idea of identity. There is no ‘you’. Everything you think of as ‘you’ is ultimately ‘dead’.
We assume all the living things around us have souls and perspective and feeling and life, but this is only perception from us. It’s a trust of our senses. But that’s all they can be. Senses.
When you describe who you are, you might tell someone what you do for work, your hobbies, where you grew up, your favorite pets, flavor of ice cream, and what terrifies you and makes you cry… But none of things are you.
Existence is only the moment through which you can perceive. It is right now. The choices you make in this immediate moment are the only thing you can be. Planning to do something tomorrow or wishing you did something different in the past is not you and never was or will be you.
The person in the past that made all those mistakes or successes is gone and that person that might fail at something risky doesn’t exist either. Only you can make choices and changes and it’s a responsibility to act accordingly.
This is something you can do for yourself at any time, in any place, at any moment. Take a moment in the place you’re in right now to stop for several minutes. Just do nothing. Observe the room you’re in. Listen to the sounds around you. Smell and feel the place you’re in. Let it wash over you with its infinite detail and complexity.
This is always there, available to you. It is a power known as mindfulness. If you are able to accept it, and make active choices to pursue it, you will find the world is filled with magic. Even in the worst places.
If you want a really good video that gives you a bit more of a grounded explanation, see Kurzgesagt’s video on Optimistic Nihilism. Waking Life is another recommendation along with Everything, Everywhere, All At Once.
Last Thursdayism is a fun rabbit hole to dive down.
OR IS IT? vsauce intensifies
Boltzmann brains are also neat
Adding onto this rabbit hole
Truman Show delusion is a real and scary thing
“They have reported that one patient traveled to New York City after 9/11 to make sure that the terrorist attacks were not a plot twist in his personal Truman Show, while another traveled to a Lower Manhattan federal building to seek asylum from his show.”
“I’m frustrated and I need answers, here are some questions that have haunted philosophers for millenia”
The good news is you’ll find no shortage of answers and writing on the matter
reads Laplace’s Demon
An yes, main character syndrome. Are you a teen? Teens in particular have a warped perception of everyone else’s attention.
Sorry I didn’t mean it like that, my brain isn’t operating at 100% cpu right now, its hard to think clearly with depression.
About 2 decades ago I was a fetus and a government ruling over 1/7 of the world’s population came after me before I was even born (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-child_policy#Enforcement). I was the second one born in my family, my existence was illegal. Then they tried denying me the legal documents like a birth certificate.
Then later my older brother started being abusive towards me and he tied me up at home using zipties and watched me suffer. He would’ve been the only child had my parents followed the government policy, but then I came into existence and he didn’t like that my parents had to split their attention, so that’s why he was torturing me. It got so bad that one day, I ran away from home once, then later my own mother told me she would not miss me if I was gone. Then the family (I’m saying “the” family instead of “my” family, because I don’t feel like I was ever part of it) moved to the US, and I was promptly facing racism and xenophobia, my fellow Chinese American classmates didn’t defend me either. People would exclude me, and I once overheard kids talking shit about me behind my back. Then when I defended myself against a bully, I was the one that got arrested. School admins decided to be a dick, I was a minor for fucks sake, and it was fucking SELF-DEFENCE.
Now my adopted country’s government declared war on non-whites. My previous country is already a failed dictatorship. I have no where to go. Which is why I feel like this is a torture chamber designed to punish me.
Less of “attention” more like notoriety. Everyone hates me for some reason.
Sounds awful, i think i can empathize. I strongly suggest thinking much less about grand concepts, and instead put all your thoughts and energy into practical things you can do to improve your life. Things like:
- Go to the gym
- Find a therapist, or if you’ve got one try to find a better one
- Apply to school, or if you already are in one then try to improve your grades
- Look for a job, or if you’ve got one try to find a better one
- Start going to more social events, like local block parties
- Make a goal to say hi to a stranger every day
- Join a hobby group
- Start doing a new skill like painting or guitar
- Volunteer at a hospital
… and other stuff like that. Focus on how to make your everyday life a better life to be living
The author is setting up your backstory before you get the cool superpowers /hj
On a more serious note
Endure. In enduring grow strong.
~Dak’kon from Planescape: Torment
And don’t you dare go hollow!
Honestly, my “backstory” is absolutely insane.
Like normally people just have the typical “I was an unwanted child”/“failed abortion”, or “I was born as a result of [S.A.]”, but like mine just went from 0 to 100, “my government sent agents to try find my mother to force an abortion” crazy icebreaker. Its an insane story, but I was born during the years when that policy was active, and I do have an older brother, so I know that my mother wasn’t just bullshitting me, its corroborated by legal documents, relatives, history and news articles regarding that policy, and my childhood memories.
But what good is a good “backstory” if I die within the first 10 minutes of the movie?
Cuz I’m totally just getting the GoT season 1 “anyone can die” death
GoT S01 Spoilers
I’mma so get Ned Starked 👀
Or worse, those dudes on the wall that got executed in the very first acts.
With regard to the possibility that life is an elaborate trap or test, this (slightly long) extract from The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, might be a helpful perspective especially the bit I’ve made italic. I hope so, and I hope you feel better soon 👍
Ford and Arthur continued their journey through the wood. A few hundred yards past the clearing they suddenly came upon a small pile of fruit lying in their path-berries that looked remarkably like raspberries and blackberries, and pulpy, green skinned fruit that looked remarkably like pears.
So far they had steered clear of the fruit and berries they had seen, though the trees and bushed were laden with them.
“Look at it this way,” Ford Prefect had said, “fruit and berries on strange planets either make you live or make you die. Therefore the point at which to start toying with them is when you’re going to die if you don’t. That way you stay ahead. The secret of healthy hitch-hiking is to eat junk food.”
They looked at the pile that lay in their path with suspicion. It looked so good it made them almost dizzy with hunger.
“Look at it this way,” said Ford, “er…”
“Yes?” said Arthur.
“I’m trying to think of a way of looking at it which means we get to eat it,” said Ford.
The leaf-dappled sun gleamed on the pulp skins of the things which looked like pears. The things which looked like raspberries and strawberries were fatter and riper than any Arthur had ever seen, even in ice cream commercials.
“Why don’t we eat them and think about it afterwards?” he said.
“Maybe that’s what they want us to do.”
“Alright, look at it this way…”
“Sounds good so far.”
“It’s there for us to eat. Either it’s good or it’s bad, either they want to feed us or to poison us. If it’s poisonous and we don’t eat it they’ll just attack us some other way. If we don’t eat, we lose out either way.”
“I like the way you’re thinking,” said Ford, “Now eat one.”
Hesitantly, Arthur picked up one of those things that looked like pears.
“I always thought that about the Garden of Eden story,” said Ford.
“Eh?”
“Garden of Eden. Tree. Apple. That bit, remember?”
“Yes of course I do.”
“Your God person puts an apple tree in the middle of a garden and says do what you like guys, oh, but don’t eat the apple. Surprise surprise, they eat it and he leaps out from behind a bush shouting ‘Gotcha’. It wouldn’t have made any difference if they hadn’t eaten it.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you’re dealing with somebody who has the sort of mentality which likes leaving hats on the pavement with bricks under them you know perfectly well they won’t give up. They’ll get you in the end.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Never mind, eat the fruit.”
“You know, this place almost looks like the Garden of Eden.”
“Eat the fruit.”
“Sounds quite like it too.”
Arthur took a bite from the thing which looked like a pear.
“It’s a pear,” he said.
Just enjoy the ride. Test or no test, we are only here for a short time, so better make the most of it.
I personally hold a Consciousness-Only View, something like nondual Buddhism, and would say that your questions are on the right track but you’re understandably trying to reconcile them with the consensus opinion of a materialistic world. Which leads to a nihilistic “this is all a simulation” line of thinking that still runs into the wall of duality - you’re still putting an external force out there, acting upon you. As long as you believe that there are goal posts, you can move them indefinitely. It’s a simulation within a simulation within a simulation and depending on your inclination, you can put a really depressing spin on it (“I’m being tormented”).
But if you aren’t actually experiencing life from a nondual angle (as you don’t seem to be), the philosophy doesn’t mean much. And to experience life with the freedom that comes from not experiencing yourself to be only the things you think you are takes a lot of practice - meditation etc. with a secure and healthy community around you. Unless you get lucky.
Up to you what you want to do with this all though. I only saw the little glimpse of your life that you divulged in the comments and as such I’d say, focus on what is most immediate to you. Get food. Take care of your body. Try to find a real-life community. Occasionally poke at your thoughts about what you VALUE and drill down - do you value the thing you said or do you value what you believe you will get with the thing you said? Make choices in life that help you live more according to your values. Stop spending excessive amounts of time online, especially if all the stories cause you anxiety.
Or you can just join a Buddhist monastery or something. You’ll be taken care of and your identity as a second child or an immigrant inherently doesn’t matter, but of course you’ll be giving up a lot.
I like this response
@DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works, turn off Lemmy Now! The mission is a failure!
I hear it’s amazing when the famous purple stuffed worm in flap-jaw space with the tuning fork does a raw blink on Harry-curry Rock. I need scissors! 61!
I had a sort of similar problem once and a therapist asked me if I knew what a cairn was. It’s a pile of rocks usually from biggest to smallest, maybe in the woods or whatever. Point is it has no place being there in nature, but yet there it is. The obvious conclusion is that someone made that. With intention. Then he asked me to look at the nature of the universe, DNA, all of it. It has order. It shouldn’t exist, but there it is. Something made it with intention. Still not sure I buy that, but his point made sense. Wether you constructed this or not, it’s here, and has order and intent. So even if it’s all fake and you made it up, you made up one hell of a fantastical and wonderful thing that mostly defies explanation. Countless studies toil away attempting to explain it. But they can’t. And neither can you. Doubly so if you are the one who created it. Appreciate the complicated nonsense.
If I could just argue with your therapist for a moment - cairns (Cairns) are well researched and understood human creations, whereas we have exactly zero evidence the universe was made with intention, and definitely no evidence that there’s any intent or any point to any of it.
All that said, I respect the perspective of gratitude and radical acceptance.
No argument here. The dude was always pushing religious tones, but I’m not into that. But ultimately he wanted me to accept my reality, real or not.
A therapist pushing their personal beliefs on you is the kind of ethical violation state licensing boards will usually take seriously, fyi
To be clear:
When you “make” a cairn, you’re reorganizing stuff that already exists. In fact, whenever we say “make”, we usually mean modifying something that already exists.
It’s reasonable to assume that a painting has a painter. We have experience with how paint behaves over time when left alone, and it doesn’t assemble itself into a painting by default.
We don’t have first-hand intuitive experience with how cosmic amounts of matter behave over time. But we do have measuring tools and mathematical models, which give us a pretty good view of how it does seem to assemble itself into Earth-like places and even the prerequisites for life itself.
And we also have a good enough understanding of Earth’s history to know why we’re missing the ability to measure some of the most interesting steps here on our planet.
Buuuut all of that is pointless to our question anyway. Because we’ve been talking about whether “makers” are necessary to reorganize matter over time. And you made a leap from that to “making” matter and time itself. That is something for which we do not have an analogous experience.
If “making” means taking raw materials in a “before” time and combining them into something else in an “after” time… how do you “make” the very concept of “making”, and “when” does that occur if it must be “before” the concept of a “before”?
