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The last thing you wrote is something I indirectly think about quite a lot. Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What

The last thing you wrote is something I indirectly think about quite a lot. Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What could you possibly care about?

emteycz 5y ago
Caring doesn't need to be negative only. IMHO You can care about love even if you're immortal, and you care about losing it even though you went through it all bazillion times already, as each person is unique and the feelings you lose are still lost and the loss is still painful.
- 7thaccount 5y ago
  Babylon 5 had a neat episode (spoilers) where the first living being (in his corporeal form) has a conversation with one of the human commanders and says something about love being a remarkable gift/illusion for mortals that they should treasure. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0OI4kah6Rp4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0OI4kah6Rp4
rkuykendall-com 5y ago
This is addressed really interestingly in The Good Place. It starts off looking like a very by-the-book sitcom though, so you do need to wait it out a bit.
- bigmattystyles 5y ago
  It’s a philosophy class masquerading as a sitcom. I liked the show a lot. And props to them for ending the show when it needed to. They could have dragged it out but didn’t.
  - 0xdeadbeefbabe 5y ago
    Glad to hear it ended. Death isn't always bad.
  - bentcorner 5y ago
    > They could have dragged it out but didn’t. I've watched the show and loved it, and I've heard this compliment before, but only just now have I realized how meta this compliment is.
plushpuffin 5y ago
In the novel Permutation City by Greg Egan, people deal with this by editing their memory every once in a while so that every experience feels fresh. One guy even edits his personality so he becomes obsessed with something for a random amount of time and then abruptly loses interest.
temp0826 5y ago
Recommend you experience 17776 [0][1] if you haven't, it explores this theme in a pretty hilarious way. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17776 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17776 [1] https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bgroat 5y ago
I've deliberately cultivated this. As I often as I remember I adopt the perspective of someone who's 14,000 years old. I don't know why I haven't died, and at this point I don't expect to at anytime in the future. But I don't know I won't - so I'm still careful, and grateful. But I don't let things bother me, because I've seen it before. And all my plans are long-term, because centuries to me are the same as quarters for you. It seems crazy, but it's really changed how I think. I got the idea after watching the incredible movie, "The Man From Earth"
- bitwize 5y ago
  "You think that thing you're worried about is going to matter in the long term? THINK, Mark, THINK!"
  - koolba 5y ago
    My crass response to people being finicky or indecisive about dinner plans is, “You do realize that whatever we pick is just going to be shit out by tomorrow right?”
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      Most of it's breathed out (unless it's fibre-heavy).
- mordymoop 5y ago
  This is fun. You often people say “death gives life meaning” which is absurd, as if the meat and potatoes of day-to—day obligations, chores, hobbies and friendships are influenced in any way by the fact that the chain of experiences will eventually end. I don’t imagine that I’m 14ky old, but I do make decisions as if I might never die, and if I do, I try to keep in mind the implications for my as-yet-nonexistent grandchildren.
- patrickmn 5y ago
  You are practicing eastern philosophy :) The Man From Earth is wonderful. The best ultra-low budget movie IMO.
JadeNB 5y ago
> Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What could you possibly care about? Mathematics! plushpuffin (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468) mentions Greg Egan's Permutation city, and this sort of question is one of his main themes. In Diaspora, Egan explores many other possible answers; my favourite of the possible answers there, and I suspect also his, is that eventually one would occupy oneself with mathematics in such a place.
- Dudeman112 5y ago
  Mr Egan would be a little biased with that answer :)
- JadeNB 5y ago
  Apologies for incorrectly including "Mathematics!" in the quote; it was meant to be the first line of my answer, but I only noticed my formatting error after the edit window had closed. The post should have read: > Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What could you possibly care about? Mathematics! plushpuffin (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468) mentions Greg Egan's Permutation City, and this sort of question is one of his main themes. In Diaspora, Egan explores many other possible answers; my favourite of the possible answers there, and I suspect also his, is that eventually one would occupy oneself with mathematics in such a place.
patrickmn 5y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o
acwan93 5y ago
I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it), so human history simply happens in cycles or waves. The underlying conflict is the same, but a new set of humans deal with it with the technological tools of the day. Simply put, if the human lifespan were longer, we might give less fucks about natural disasters because we've seen them before.
- Wowfunhappy 5y ago
  > I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it) I’m splitting hairs, but aren’t these two separate problems? If I lived 1,000 years, I’m not sure I’d be able to remember things that happened 200 years ago super well. I can’t remember things that happened 20 years ago very well.
  - 7thaccount 5y ago
    The assumption that I'm going under (I assume others as well) is that if we can halt aging, we might be able to do something with memory as well. Although I kinda personally believe (more on hope than any technology being available) that we can move to a non biological medium with nearly infinite storage, speed of light processing speed, effective immortality...etc. The only needs would be entertainment and energy. Of course, we have zero idea if that is even possible.
- gibbsnich 5y ago
  Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) There was an article about Dune on DLF (sorry it‘s in German) that makes exactly this point https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generationen-ueber-das-menschliche.1184.de.html?dram:article_id=486695 https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generati...
walterbell 5y ago
> What could you possibly care about? Competition/drama with other immortals? Competition with past selves? Assuming no memory wipes. Context switches could be annoying, given the ability to tangent across infinite time or space.

The last thing you wrote is something I indirectly think about quite a lot. Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What could you possibly care about?

emteycz 5y ago

Caring doesn't need to be negative only. IMHO You can care about love even if you're immortal, and you care about losing it even though you went through it all bazillion times already, as each person is unique and the feelings you lose are still lost and the loss is still painful.

7thaccount 5y ago
Babylon 5 had a neat episode (spoilers) where the first living being (in his corporeal form) has a conversation with one of the human commanders and says something about love being a remarkable gift/illusion for mortals that they should treasure. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0OI4kah6Rp4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0OI4kah6Rp4

rkuykendall-com 5y ago

This is addressed really interestingly in The Good Place. It starts off looking like a very by-the-book sitcom though, so you do need to wait it out a bit.

bigmattystyles 5y ago
It’s a philosophy class masquerading as a sitcom. I liked the show a lot. And props to them for ending the show when it needed to. They could have dragged it out but didn’t.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 5y ago
  Glad to hear it ended. Death isn't always bad.
- bentcorner 5y ago
  > They could have dragged it out but didn’t. I've watched the show and loved it, and I've heard this compliment before, but only just now have I realized how meta this compliment is.

plushpuffin 5y ago

In the novel Permutation City by Greg Egan, people deal with this by editing their memory every once in a while so that every experience feels fresh. One guy even edits his personality so he becomes obsessed with something for a random amount of time and then abruptly loses interest.

temp0826 5y ago

Recommend you experience 17776 [0][1] if you haven't, it explores this theme in a pretty hilarious way. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17776 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17776 [1] https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football https://www.sbnation.com/a/17776-football

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

bgroat 5y ago

I've deliberately cultivated this. As I often as I remember I adopt the perspective of someone who's 14,000 years old. I don't know why I haven't died, and at this point I don't expect to at anytime in the future. But I don't know I won't - so I'm still careful, and grateful. But I don't let things bother me, because I've seen it before. And all my plans are long-term, because centuries to me are the same as quarters for you. It seems crazy, but it's really changed how I think. I got the idea after watching the incredible movie, "The Man From Earth"

bitwize 5y ago
"You think that thing you're worried about is going to matter in the long term? THINK, Mark, THINK!"
- koolba 5y ago
  My crass response to people being finicky or indecisive about dinner plans is, “You do realize that whatever we pick is just going to be shit out by tomorrow right?”
  - wizzwizz4 5y ago
    Most of it's breathed out (unless it's fibre-heavy).
mordymoop 5y ago
This is fun. You often people say “death gives life meaning” which is absurd, as if the meat and potatoes of day-to—day obligations, chores, hobbies and friendships are influenced in any way by the fact that the chain of experiences will eventually end. I don’t imagine that I’m 14ky old, but I do make decisions as if I might never die, and if I do, I try to keep in mind the implications for my as-yet-nonexistent grandchildren.
patrickmn 5y ago
You are practicing eastern philosophy :) The Man From Earth is wonderful. The best ultra-low budget movie IMO.

JadeNB 5y ago

> Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What could you possibly care about? Mathematics! plushpuffin (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468) mentions Greg Egan's Permutation city, and this sort of question is one of his main themes. In Diaspora, Egan explores many other possible answers; my favourite of the possible answers there, and I suspect also his, is that eventually one would occupy oneself with mathematics in such a place.

Dudeman112 5y ago
Mr Egan would be a little biased with that answer :)
JadeNB 5y ago
Apologies for incorrectly including "Mathematics!" in the quote; it was meant to be the first line of my answer, but I only noticed my formatting error after the edit window had closed. The post should have read: > Imagine a place (call it heaven if you want) where time and death don’t exist. What could you possibly care about? Mathematics! plushpuffin (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27132468) mentions Greg Egan's Permutation City, and this sort of question is one of his main themes. In Diaspora, Egan explores many other possible answers; my favourite of the possible answers there, and I suspect also his, is that eventually one would occupy oneself with mathematics in such a place.

patrickmn 5y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU0PYcCsL6o

acwan93 5y ago

I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it), so human history simply happens in cycles or waves. The underlying conflict is the same, but a new set of humans deal with it with the technological tools of the day. Simply put, if the human lifespan were longer, we might give less fucks about natural disasters because we've seen them before.

Wowfunhappy 5y ago
> I read somewhere that because people don't live that long, we don't have a collective memory of previous disasters or pandemics (anyone who was alive today during the 1918 pandemic wouldn't really remember it) I’m splitting hairs, but aren’t these two separate problems? If I lived 1,000 years, I’m not sure I’d be able to remember things that happened 200 years ago super well. I can’t remember things that happened 20 years ago very well.
- 7thaccount 5y ago
  The assumption that I'm going under (I assume others as well) is that if we can halt aging, we might be able to do something with memory as well. Although I kinda personally believe (more on hope than any technology being available) that we can move to a non biological medium with nearly infinite storage, speed of light processing speed, effective immortality...etc. The only needs would be entertainment and energy. Of course, we have zero idea if that is even possible.
gibbsnich 5y ago
Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel) There was an article about Dune on DLF (sorry it‘s in German) that makes exactly this point https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generationen-ueber-das-menschliche.1184.de.html?dram:article_id=486695 https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/denken-ueber-tausend-generati...

walterbell 5y ago

> What could you possibly care about? Competition/drama with other immortals? Competition with past selves? Assuming no memory wipes. Context switches could be annoying, given the ability to tangent across infinite time or space.