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Anyone else when they think about the origin of Universe for a long time, start to wonder how the hell do we even exist and get a feeling like a panic attack? I

Anyone else when they think about the origin of Universe for a long time, start to wonder how the hell do we even exist and get a feeling like a panic attack? I don't really know how to accurately describe the feeling. Its a very weird sensation. It only happens when I think about the origin of Universe. And its very very hard to arrive at that state. Requires a lot of concentration. I must have experienced it like less than 5 or 6 times in my life so far.

jacobedawson 6y ago
I love / hate the sensation when you try to conceive that it (it including whatever includes "it", ad infinitum) has either existed forever or there was a point before anything existed.
fatnoah 6y ago
>Anyone else had the feeling where you think about the origin of Universe for a long time, it doesn't make any sense and you almost get a panic attack? For whatever reason, it makes more more anxious than it should. The concepts involved are so far removed from my brain's understanding of reality that it makes me uncomfortable.
JamesSwift 6y ago
I think of it as having an "existential crisis". Its not just limited to thinking about the universe for me, but things like eventual death and all those "impossible to understand" topics.
Sevrene 6y ago
For sure, I have experienced similar feelings. Good to know it's not just me. It's kind of like a derealization caused by the thought of how absurd or odd it is that we exist at all.
maze-le 6y ago
It is called existential anxiety, it shows that you are able to contemplate about your own insignificance in contrast to the grand scheme of things (universe, all of existence, etc.). We all have it on one level or another, I used to have it when looking into a dark cloudless night, realizing that all of the little dots I can see out there could technically be orbited by another planet that bears life, inhabited by millions or billions of other lifeforms that could be able to feel and think. Usually it is nothing to worry about, except when you get obsessed by it and it starts to control aspects of your life because you build a worldview around it or try hard to avoid it or explain it away: then it is called an existential crisis. But what it really means is that the mind gets overwhelmed by the fact that the universe is orders of magnitudes more complex than what the self has ever encountered in our daily lifes. Our brains have evolved so that bipedal apes that migrated from forests into the steppes can survive and cooperate in groups. It was never meant to be confronted by questions of this dimension, but yet here we are. You can make your peace with it, and embrace it. It can also be a source of endless curiosity, spirituality and creativity.
- CuriousSkeptic 6y ago
  Interesting. I’ve had the exact opposite reaction. At times when I’d suffer from anxiety my most effective remedy would be to sit down outside and observe the stars until that deep feeling of insignificance from really seeing it all presented itself. Somehow the perspective of my life just being a tiny sparkle in the grand scheme of things would render any stress moot.
  - keenmaster 6y ago
    The feeling of insignificance is merely one possible response of a range of arbitrary emotional responses. It has been made more prevalent by a cultural, existentialist meme. I choose wonder and amazement as my arbitrary emotional response. It is more satisfying. I hope that whatever superintelligence we create will speak to us about the answers it finds to these questions, and not choose to wipe us out instead. There is no reason that a superintelligent AI cannot do the following: create superintelligent theories about the universe (using superintelligent intuition), create superintelligent tools to prove its superintelligent theories, leading to superintelligent empirical observation, ultimately producing the answer to the question of our existence far faster and far more eloquently than is predicted.
    - CuriousSkeptic 6y ago
      Perhaps insignificant was a poor choice of word. Did not mean to imply that in an exclusive sense. Rather inclusive, a tiny tiny part of something inspiring, as you put it, wonder and amazement. And, I would add, to underline the inclusive part: pride.
- cmehdy 6y ago
  It might be a bit preposterous to say what humans were meant to do or not to do, especially given that with a sample size of n = 1 we have humans actually wondering about such things. Existential anxiety isn't per se about the relative size of self to the world but more about the inability to grasp and control the understanding of it. Pretty much everything living strives to "control" things, and in the case of human beings this applies to mental things too. Controlling things on a mental level is usually about understanding them, not necessarily about bending them to our will. Anxiety is tied to a difficulty in dealing with perceived lack of control (over others, over our emotions, over the future..), and existential anxiety is an example of anxiety when it comes to existence. We simply don't know enough to say something that cements control. Thankfully one of the coping mechanisms is humour, so I'll leave the reader with the very well known Douglas Adams bit: “The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
disambiguation 6y ago
yes, i find it's a useful antidote to the existential fear of death
jeffreyrogers 6y ago
Yes, I've had this happen several times as well, and only when thinking about the origin of the universe (or the origin of God, which is essentially the same thing). It doesn't seem to be a feeling I can create consciously, i.e. thinking about it right now doesn't cause it to happen. I always wondered whether other people experienced this too, now I know. Thanks!
ssijak 6y ago
I experience that too, and only when I ponder the universe and ultimate questions like “why is there something rather than nothing?” It is a strange feeling that comes fast, some feeling of absurdity of it all mixed with the pain that we humans will maybe never be able to answer such questions, and it feels like a strange panic attack, felt both in the body and brain. I take solace in some way that I am not alone in this and that there are other groups of trillions of atoms somewhere else in spacetime pondering the same questions with the same intensity.
Razengan 6y ago
Yes. It feels like we're never going to escape, if there's no beginning. Like you're about to touch something that could cause everything to blink out of existence. It actually causes physical discomfort and an increased heartrate and rapid breathing, like you need to turn back, NOW.
megameter 6y ago
I think the reaction to cosmological origins rather depends on how much you are trying to (implicitly) stay within your existing beliefs. If you approach with a healthy nihilistic attitude, it's just cool stuff but doesn't matter(because nothing matters and as a nilhilist that's OK). But if you're chained to upholding or championing something, the existence question may become an enemy, one that is so hard to dismiss that it drains you.

jacobedawson 6y ago

I love / hate the sensation when you try to conceive that it (it including whatever includes "it", ad infinitum) has either existed forever or there was a point before anything existed.

fatnoah 6y ago

>Anyone else had the feeling where you think about the origin of Universe for a long time, it doesn't make any sense and you almost get a panic attack? For whatever reason, it makes more more anxious than it should. The concepts involved are so far removed from my brain's understanding of reality that it makes me uncomfortable.

JamesSwift 6y ago

I think of it as having an "existential crisis". Its not just limited to thinking about the universe for me, but things like eventual death and all those "impossible to understand" topics.

Sevrene 6y ago

For sure, I have experienced similar feelings. Good to know it's not just me. It's kind of like a derealization caused by the thought of how absurd or odd it is that we exist at all.

maze-le 6y ago

It is called existential anxiety, it shows that you are able to contemplate about your own insignificance in contrast to the grand scheme of things (universe, all of existence, etc.). We all have it on one level or another, I used to have it when looking into a dark cloudless night, realizing that all of the little dots I can see out there could technically be orbited by another planet that bears life, inhabited by millions or billions of other lifeforms that could be able to feel and think. Usually it is nothing to worry about, except when you get obsessed by it and it starts to control aspects of your life because you build a worldview around it or try hard to avoid it or explain it away: then it is called an existential crisis. But what it really means is that the mind gets overwhelmed by the fact that the universe is orders of magnitudes more complex than what the self has ever encountered in our daily lifes. Our brains have evolved so that bipedal apes that migrated from forests into the steppes can survive and cooperate in groups. It was never meant to be confronted by questions of this dimension, but yet here we are. You can make your peace with it, and embrace it. It can also be a source of endless curiosity, spirituality and creativity.

CuriousSkeptic 6y ago
Interesting. I’ve had the exact opposite reaction. At times when I’d suffer from anxiety my most effective remedy would be to sit down outside and observe the stars until that deep feeling of insignificance from really seeing it all presented itself. Somehow the perspective of my life just being a tiny sparkle in the grand scheme of things would render any stress moot.
- keenmaster 6y ago
  The feeling of insignificance is merely one possible response of a range of arbitrary emotional responses. It has been made more prevalent by a cultural, existentialist meme. I choose wonder and amazement as my arbitrary emotional response. It is more satisfying. I hope that whatever superintelligence we create will speak to us about the answers it finds to these questions, and not choose to wipe us out instead. There is no reason that a superintelligent AI cannot do the following: create superintelligent theories about the universe (using superintelligent intuition), create superintelligent tools to prove its superintelligent theories, leading to superintelligent empirical observation, ultimately producing the answer to the question of our existence far faster and far more eloquently than is predicted.
  - CuriousSkeptic 6y ago
    Perhaps insignificant was a poor choice of word. Did not mean to imply that in an exclusive sense. Rather inclusive, a tiny tiny part of something inspiring, as you put it, wonder and amazement. And, I would add, to underline the inclusive part: pride.
cmehdy 6y ago
It might be a bit preposterous to say what humans were meant to do or not to do, especially given that with a sample size of n = 1 we have humans actually wondering about such things. Existential anxiety isn't per se about the relative size of self to the world but more about the inability to grasp and control the understanding of it. Pretty much everything living strives to "control" things, and in the case of human beings this applies to mental things too. Controlling things on a mental level is usually about understanding them, not necessarily about bending them to our will. Anxiety is tied to a difficulty in dealing with perceived lack of control (over others, over our emotions, over the future..), and existential anxiety is an example of anxiety when it comes to existence. We simply don't know enough to say something that cements control. Thankfully one of the coping mechanisms is humour, so I'll leave the reader with the very well known Douglas Adams bit: “The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

disambiguation 6y ago

yes, i find it's a useful antidote to the existential fear of death

jeffreyrogers 6y ago

Yes, I've had this happen several times as well, and only when thinking about the origin of the universe (or the origin of God, which is essentially the same thing). It doesn't seem to be a feeling I can create consciously, i.e. thinking about it right now doesn't cause it to happen. I always wondered whether other people experienced this too, now I know. Thanks!

ssijak 6y ago

I experience that too, and only when I ponder the universe and ultimate questions like “why is there something rather than nothing?” It is a strange feeling that comes fast, some feeling of absurdity of it all mixed with the pain that we humans will maybe never be able to answer such questions, and it feels like a strange panic attack, felt both in the body and brain. I take solace in some way that I am not alone in this and that there are other groups of trillions of atoms somewhere else in spacetime pondering the same questions with the same intensity.

Razengan 6y ago

Yes. It feels like we're never going to escape, if there's no beginning. Like you're about to touch something that could cause everything to blink out of existence. It actually causes physical discomfort and an increased heartrate and rapid breathing, like you need to turn back, NOW.

megameter 6y ago

I think the reaction to cosmological origins rather depends on how much you are trying to (implicitly) stay within your existing beliefs. If you approach with a healthy nihilistic attitude, it's just cool stuff but doesn't matter(because nothing matters and as a nilhilist that's OK). But if you're chained to upholding or championing something, the existence question may become an enemy, one that is so hard to dismiss that it drains you.