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Is there a good word that describes the somewhat uncomfortable feeling one gets in their stomach when thinking about the magnitude and complexity of reality? Is

by neom 5y ago

Is there a good word that describes the somewhat uncomfortable feeling one gets in their stomach when thinking about the magnitude and complexity of reality? Is humbled a feeling? I can't thinking of anything good in English, wondering if any other languages have this word (like how Saudade is in Portuguese)

krastanov 5y ago
Existential dread? It can be a pretty exciting feeling. I like how the Kurtzgesagt educational channel on YouTube has it permeate their cosmology/astronomy videos. They even addressed it explicitly in their "nihilistic optimism" video.
- kadoban 5y ago
  If you like that feeling, read Stephen Baxter's work. Existential dread is the main character in a lot of it, it's quite something. The Xeelee Sequence especially comes to mind.
  - krastanov 5y ago
    My go to is works by Greg Egan (e.g. Diaspora and Schild's Ladder and Permutation City). Thanks for the suggestion, I will check out Baxter.
    - kadoban 5y ago
      Always glad to share. I'll check out Greg Egan, I've heard the name a bunch of times but never actually got to his work yet.
      - arrow7000 5y ago
        He is my all time favourite science fiction author. If it's existential dread you're after he delivers it in spades.
_Microft 5y ago
Maybe you mean "awe"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe
- stronglikedan 5y ago
  No, it's deeper than mere awe. I've felt it once, when contemplating what eternal life would be like. I can see how people would feel it while contemplating the scale of the universe.
- neom 5y ago
  I was thinking about awe, it's probably the most accurate, but when you go to something like "saudade" - awe doesn't feel "deep" enough (not sure that makes sense)? Then again, I don't know that we tend to have particularly "emotionally deep" words in English... Awe is good though.
  - _Microft 5y ago
    Thanks for making me look up "saudade", it is quite different from what I had expected! Wikipedia has articles in different languages on it.
Phithagoras 5y ago
Some might call it the sublime: "fascinated but also a bit unsettled" "existentially insignificant but strangely exalted" “delightful horror” and a “sort of tranquility tinged with terror.” from https://erraticus.co/2018/12/04/sublime-experience-kant-schopenhauer/ https://erraticus.co/2018/12/04/sublime-experience-kant-scho...
- neom 5y ago
  This is a fantastic article, thanks for sharing, I hadn't remotely considered sublime in this context, probably because they're my favourite band...sublime is great word in this context.
elorant 5y ago
The Greek word "δέος" I think describes what you feel. A combination of admiration and fear, but also to recognize the grandeur of a higher power. It's frequently used for spiritual purposes. Awe is the English translation.
tejtm 5y ago
terrible beauty
- handojin 5y ago
  fearful symmetry
undershirt 5y ago
“Scientism”
prof-dr-ir 5y ago
Blaise Pascal needed a few sentences: "When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me? The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me."
credit_guy 5y ago
You can flip this, and look like the bright side: all that huge complexity means lots of things to discover. Nobel prize winner Frank Wilczek writes in his last book "Fundamentals" that learning physics is like being born again. Kids have a lot of fun playing with water when they are around 3-5. Fluid dynamics is complex, and it takes our brains a long time to observe and get an intuition of it. All that observation, experimentation, (subconscious) hypothesis formulation, testing, adjustment, retesting is a rewarding experience. After we are about 7, we pretty much finish understanding the world around us. Leaves fall from trees, but not straight, sometimes they go this way and that because of the wind -> all this would have produce a sense of wonder in someone who's only 3 years old, but when you are 7 it's just old news. We switch to learning about the human world, via school. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes not, but whatever. But when you encounter quantum mechanics, or special relativity, or generalized relativity, or any number of topics in Physics, your intuition fails you big time. You need to go through a new learning process, just like when you were 3 years old. And that's a tremendous lot of fun. Now, here's the sad part: a person like Frank Wilczek probably knows everything about physics. All the ins and outs of all the physical theories out there, quantum field theory, quantum chromodynamics (he's basically one of its inventors), general relativity, you name it. For him the number of times he can experience the euphoria of such an intellectual rebirth dwindles by the day. But who knows, maybe that's what it looks like from our vantage point, maybe the world at the frontiers of knowledge is still full of wonders for Frank.

by neom 5y ago

krastanov 5y ago

Existential dread? It can be a pretty exciting feeling. I like how the Kurtzgesagt educational channel on YouTube has it permeate their cosmology/astronomy videos. They even addressed it explicitly in their "nihilistic optimism" video.

kadoban 5y ago
If you like that feeling, read Stephen Baxter's work. Existential dread is the main character in a lot of it, it's quite something. The Xeelee Sequence especially comes to mind.
- krastanov 5y ago
  My go to is works by Greg Egan (e.g. Diaspora and Schild's Ladder and Permutation City). Thanks for the suggestion, I will check out Baxter.
  - kadoban 5y ago
    Always glad to share. I'll check out Greg Egan, I've heard the name a bunch of times but never actually got to his work yet.
    - arrow7000 5y ago
      He is my all time favourite science fiction author. If it's existential dread you're after he delivers it in spades.

_Microft 5y ago

Maybe you mean "awe"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe

stronglikedan 5y ago
No, it's deeper than mere awe. I've felt it once, when contemplating what eternal life would be like. I can see how people would feel it while contemplating the scale of the universe.
neom 5y ago
I was thinking about awe, it's probably the most accurate, but when you go to something like "saudade" - awe doesn't feel "deep" enough (not sure that makes sense)? Then again, I don't know that we tend to have particularly "emotionally deep" words in English... Awe is good though.
- _Microft 5y ago
  Thanks for making me look up "saudade", it is quite different from what I had expected! Wikipedia has articles in different languages on it.

Phithagoras 5y ago

Some might call it the sublime: "fascinated but also a bit unsettled" "existentially insignificant but strangely exalted" “delightful horror” and a “sort of tranquility tinged with terror.” from https://erraticus.co/2018/12/04/sublime-experience-kant-schopenhauer/ https://erraticus.co/2018/12/04/sublime-experience-kant-scho...

neom 5y ago
This is a fantastic article, thanks for sharing, I hadn't remotely considered sublime in this context, probably because they're my favourite band...sublime is great word in this context.

elorant 5y ago

The Greek word "δέος" I think describes what you feel. A combination of admiration and fear, but also to recognize the grandeur of a higher power. It's frequently used for spiritual purposes. Awe is the English translation.

tejtm 5y ago

terrible beauty

handojin 5y ago
fearful symmetry

undershirt 5y ago

“Scientism”

prof-dr-ir 5y ago

Blaise Pascal needed a few sentences: "When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the small space which I fill, or even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces whereof I know nothing, and which know nothing of me, I am terrified, and wonder that I am here rather than there, for there is no reason why here rather than there, or now rather than then. Who has set me here? By whose order and design have this place and time been destined for me? The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me."

credit_guy 5y ago

You can flip this, and look like the bright side: all that huge complexity means lots of things to discover. Nobel prize winner Frank Wilczek writes in his last book "Fundamentals" that learning physics is like being born again. Kids have a lot of fun playing with water when they are around 3-5. Fluid dynamics is complex, and it takes our brains a long time to observe and get an intuition of it. All that observation, experimentation, (subconscious) hypothesis formulation, testing, adjustment, retesting is a rewarding experience. After we are about 7, we pretty much finish understanding the world around us. Leaves fall from trees, but not straight, sometimes they go this way and that because of the wind -> all this would have produce a sense of wonder in someone who's only 3 years old, but when you are 7 it's just old news. We switch to learning about the human world, via school. Sometimes it's fun, sometimes not, but whatever. But when you encounter quantum mechanics, or special relativity, or generalized relativity, or any number of topics in Physics, your intuition fails you big time. You need to go through a new learning process, just like when you were 3 years old. And that's a tremendous lot of fun. Now, here's the sad part: a person like Frank Wilczek probably knows everything about physics. All the ins and outs of all the physical theories out there, quantum field theory, quantum chromodynamics (he's basically one of its inventors), general relativity, you name it. For him the number of times he can experience the euphoria of such an intellectual rebirth dwindles by the day. But who knows, maybe that's what it looks like from our vantage point, maybe the world at the frontiers of knowledge is still full of wonders for Frank.