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First of all, I'm sorry to learn the author got cancer; I wish her all the best and continued strength. Many contributors have already made good suggestions ho

by jll29 5y ago

First of all, I'm sorry to learn the author got cancer; I wish her all the best and continued strength. Many contributors have already made good suggestions how to reduce the risk of getting cancer, or how to deal with it; but I found most posts quite _technical_. Speaking in general terms, cancer is not a disease like a common cold. The human body sooner or later is bound to decay, which pretty much starts once one is fully grown, and mutations get less often corrected by the wonderful repair processes our bodies are equipped with. Occasionally, mutations lead to uncontrolled growth of malign tissue, some incidents of which are bound to lead to death, others not. And while it is absolutely a good idea to life healthily and to take care of one's physical and emotional well-being, one should also never deny that we are all mortals, and cancer as well as traditional diseases can and eventually will wipe any individual out. I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. Because it is a statistical process, we can forecast how many are affected, but not which individual, and everyone can try to minimize one's chances to be affected, but this does not mean they will live forever. And it's not just cancer, there are many ways one may pick the unlucky straw: it is not widely known, but the number of people who die from a heath attack in their 20s is significant. Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last.

forgetfulness 5y ago
> Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last It'd be a rather drab outlook to life if browsing Hacker News were indeed something I'd be contented with being my end.
- paulcole 5y ago
  I don’t think it’s a drab outlook. I spend my days shitposting here and on Reddit. This is what my world is, not traveling or doing something “wonderful” and “meaningful.” If I keel over right now, would I be discontented or upset about how things ended? Not at all. This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it?
  - jstummbillig 5y ago
    > This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it? Wonderful
  - forgetfulness 5y ago
    > This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it? Can't judge, I've spent a lot of time shitposting on Reddit myself, I just got tired of what I was doing and what it was causing on me about last week, let's see what I do now. But I don't want to warp my perspective on life so that "finding my lost pet", "finding love (and love again)", "first day of a new life in a different country", "that mushroom trip that was actually useful", etc. to weigh not too much more on the scale of things than "slacking off in Hacker News", all so I can be more comfortable with mortality. There's more ways to be comfortable with mortality anyway, heck, forgetting about it until death is imminent is probably better, works for a lot of people for sure. But it may just be a matter of delivery, you relax the wording a bit, and try to live every week as if it were the last one, or every month, it lets you cherish things that are more meaningful or actually enjoyable.
gameswithgo 5y ago
Life is like poker, not chess. You can make the best choices and often you will still lose.
- indigochill 5y ago
  Spun another way, in poker, although you're dealt an unplayable hand most of the time, the key to success is (a) patiently not playing bad hands and (b) recognizing the good hands and capitalizing on them correctly. That said, no matter how well you play, the game does end eventually. I like to think that, like poker, despite the variance, you have some degree of influence on how well the game ends.
  - derbOac 5y ago
    It's more complicated than that though: life is more like a variant of poker where no one even agrees on the rules or what the goals of the players are.
- batch12 5y ago
  *always you will still lose. We will all die.
  - themaninthedark 5y ago
    I don't like death and I would be in line just as quick as most people if I could be immortal and reasonably healthy. But is death loosing? I don't view death as the antithesis of life, more appropriately I think it mirrors conception/birth. I think of death more as a finale, the conclusion to your story be it grand or mundane. I also wonder if not for death would we cherish the events in life as greatly as we do? Think of the thinks that gave you pleasure as a child that you no longer care for as they have become stale and boring. Perhaps it would be so with living had we not death.
giantg2 5y ago
"eventually will wipe any individual out." Sure, eventually. It's one thing if people are getting cancer or having heart attacks later in life. It's a little concerning when a fairly large number of younger people are afflicted. The rate of cancer has risen about 30% for young people since the seventies. So it seems that there's something wrong in our environment or lifestyles that could be increasing risk. That's very concerning in my opinion. https://www.healthcentral.com/article/cancer-rates-rising-in-young-people https://www.healthcentral.com/article/cancer-rates-rising-in... And on the subject of dying from a heart attack in one's 20s. That's "significant", but 1 in 100,000 is pretty rare. Some could be congenital or obesity related, but the majority in that age group is due to substance abuse. That's a factor people can control, and thus not as scary to most people.
- altcognito 5y ago
  From the article: Better detection is also a likely contributor.
  - giantg2 5y ago
    Yeah, but I would be more interested in the other two stated causes - environmental and lifestyle factors. These would contribute to a net increase and/or earlier onset.
- qgin 5y ago
  A lot of health-related things took a turn for the worse in the 70s Obesity was 13% in 1970. Now it’s 42%. Obesity can increase cancer risk by 50% https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/how-does-obesity-cause-cancer.h27Z1591413.html https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/ho...
  - giantg2 5y ago
    Yes, and what is contributing to obesity? Are there environmental factors affecting androgenic functions? Is it all just people being sedentary over eaters? Or something else?
kiba 5y ago
for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. No. Living longer means we have to live with our decisions. People who live short lives don't have to live with decisions that fucked the later generation years after they're long dead. The population limit on this planet isn't natural resources, but pollution, followed by heat dissipation because humans are all 100 watts space heaters. Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. How about we just live our life as best as we can? Trust me, it's miserable living without hope or wallowing in self pity.
- kuhewa 5y ago
  > followed by heat dissipation because humans are all 100 watts space heaters. Well that's an.. interesting take
  - throwrugtime 5y ago
    People talk about 'natural resources' and about how we're overpopulated all the time, but don't often want to go into real specifics. My guess is the repressed desire for death and depopulation came first, and the narrative later. English-speaking culture is steeped in Christianity (even modern 'wokeism' is just another, more radical iteration of calvinism), and Christianity is a doomsday cult; we're fascinated by doomsday narratives, the end of the world, mass death- we're in love with these stories; look at zombie movies etc. The overpopulation meme is certainly going to be partially fed by how appealing 'the end of days' is to the western mind. (Right wingers have a doomsday narrative, too, it's just a biosocial one rather than an ecological/geographic one; modern technology and the resulting societal shifts lead to selection against intelligence, and societal decay propagates irreversibly, leading to a future of stupid, lazy, and most importantly small-souled bugmen.)
    - themaninthedark 5y ago
      That doesn't jive with most of my experiences. The Christian narrative I see is be fruitful and multiply, nature will provide. The people that I do see promoting this sort of population limit theory are new age hippies, vegans and the like. Recently seems very popular with more college educated folk. 'How can you think about having kids when you know how bad it is for the environment'
aeetes 5y ago
> will wipe any individual out. I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. This common claim that "we need to die to make room for other people" is not obviously true, good discussion here: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ufjFuHmJoysXrKXYQ/what-exactly-is-the-overpopulation-argument-in-regards-to https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ufjFuHmJoysXrKXYQ/what-exact... Also, don't be so quick to accept death as a good thing: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Aud7CL7uhz55KL8jG/transhumanism-as-simplified-humanism https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Aud7CL7uhz55KL8jG/transhuman.... It's basically the worst thing that can happen.
- falcolas 5y ago
  > It's basically the worst thing that can happen. For the individual, not the species as a whole. Or for the planet as a whole. Sure, we might not lose some existing fantastic thinkers and doers, but what happens to the new thinkers and doers? If Sir Isaac Newton was still alive, would Einstein have gotten the attention he did, having to fight against a well established hierarchy of scientists built over the millennia? Would governmental seats ever change? Would slavery have ever gone away in a world where human rights would have no need to progress?
greenmana 5y ago
If I knew this was my last day alive, I wouldn't be here sitting at work. Living every minute as if it was your last is actually pretty difficult to do. Or perhaps it means coming up with the understanding that it's not worth your time to stress about work. Just do the work and focus on what makes you happy. Maybe even quit and live a simpler life with less income? But you usually have houses to pay, kids to raise... it can become a prison of its own kind. There's always some magical reward waiting just around the corner, be it retirement, kids moving out, when you can finally focus on yourself again. How does one truly live every moment like it was their last?
latexr 5y ago
> Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. The thought may be freeing to you, but many others become paralysed by it, obsessing about “the right choices” at every moment. An alternate view: it is because we only have one limited life that our choices don’t matter. We and everyone our choices touch will die, and nothing will have mattered. Depending on your situation, that thought can fill you with dread or be profoundly calming. > Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. That is both impossible and (I’d argue) unhealthy. I wouldn’t waste my last minute cooking a meal, yet I need to spend an hour doing it now to survive another day. “The right choice” and living every moment as if it were the last seldom overlap. The Simpsons had a great joke on the platitude: https://youtu.be/lkAaQQal2ck?t=20 https://youtu.be/lkAaQQal2ck?t=20
- betenoire 5y ago
  Some things you do are for survival, of course you wouldn't do those in your final hour because survival isn't a concern anymore. If on your last day, you want to spend it with loved ones, and say, in nature or with music, then that's how you should be trying spend your life in general. It's a heuristic, no a literal instruction book.
  - latexr 5y ago
    > Some things you do are for survival, of course you wouldn't do those in your final hour because survival isn't a concern anymore. And some things you do are not for survival, yet they continue to be the right choice if you’re not living your final day. Like mending your favourite t-shirt. Cooking a meal was an example which just happens to overlap with survival. The point stands. > If on your last day, you want to spend it with loved ones, and say, in nature or with music, then that's how you should be trying spend your life in general. > It's a heuristic, no a literal instruction book. What’s the point in saying it, then? If it amounts to “in general, you should try to spend your life the way you want”, don’t (effectively?) all living creatures do that by default without being told? If it’s literal, it’s impossible to follow. If it’s figurative, it’s meaningless. I used “platitude” deliberatedly: > a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful
jvanderbot 5y ago
I think more people are alive now than have ever lived. I also think that means the next generation or two will have so many people on the planet that literally everyone who ever lived could still be alive and it would be the same. Scarcity is not the problem. Death is so far inevitable, but it is not necessary.
- nisegami 5y ago
  The dead outnumber the living at over 14:1 https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/ https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...
  - jvanderbot 5y ago
    Ah, perfect. I was mistaken.
paulpauper 5y ago
There is a lot wrong with this post Speaking in general terms, cancer is not a disease like a common cold. you don't say I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life This suggests a Malthusian, zero-sum world in which no new net value can be created. Someone could have said that 200 years ago, yet living standards are higher than ever in spite of more people than ever. Poverty rates worldwide continue to fall. And it's not just cancer, there are many ways one may pick the unlucky straw: it is not widely known, but the number of people who die from a heath attack in their 20s is significant. Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. This doesn't mean we need to accept death when it can be prevented. The promise and hope of technology is to expand human potential and not have to settle for fate. Someone again could have said this 200 years ago about any other medical condition that is now treatable or curable today, This is the sort of defeatist logic that is popular online these days, but we won't have to settle for just giving up.
- oceanplexian 5y ago
  It's definitely a form of fatalism; people who hold views like this are viewing it from a certain state of consciousness, and so they see the world through a lens that reflects the negative (Not that there aren't plenty of negative things going on in the world and the environment, but there is much more to be optimistic about). From my point of view if you look at the state of humanity objectively, it's pretty obvious that most of us are living our best lives compared to any time in history. Even the fact that we understand some of the damage we might be doing to the planet is a huge leap forward, since understanding the problem is the first step to finding a solution. And we have more tools and solutions than ever before in history: earth observation/space travel, genetic engineering, renewable energy, powerful, cheap and abundant computing, rapid prototyping etc, etc.
Reflecticon 5y ago
> I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Thank you for this wonderful thought! I always struggle with mortality and my place in the world. You offered me a window into the grander scheme of things, that doesn't fall back on God or you are just a small speck in the grander scheme of things. We are all here to keep our species going and hand over the marathon stick to the next generation and then step aside.
anonymouse94759 5y ago
> for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. Fertility rates are declining globally, even in Sub-Saharan Africa: https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/dramatic-drop-fertility-across-africa https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/dramatic-drop-fertility-acr... Unless lifespans radically expand, we will eventually start to run out of people. If this were 4chan, I would tell you outright what I really think of you, but since it isn't, I won't.
- arvinsim 5y ago
  Since we live in a time of relative peace and technology, people often forget that population correlates to military might. I am pretty sure that once society decays enough that people start thinking of making war again, expect a population boom to happen.
fooblessmooo 5y ago
> Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. I’m against this advice because aside from the usual objections like practicality, it’s fundamentally based on fear of missing out and not having lived a good life. It’s a kind of striving and all striving leads to suffering. If you want to spend your afternoon navel gazing or looking at fish in the pond, that’s the true thing you should do. Free and easy wandering.
- arvinsim 5y ago
  Seems like the antithesis of hustle culture which is being pushed hard today. Although it seems to be that there is starting to be backlash on that.
bioinformatics 5y ago
The best way to reduce your chances of cancer is to either not be born or kill yourself. I did cancer research for many years, so, it's a very valid advice.

by jll29 5y ago

forgetfulness 5y ago

> Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last It'd be a rather drab outlook to life if browsing Hacker News were indeed something I'd be contented with being my end.

paulcole 5y ago
I don’t think it’s a drab outlook. I spend my days shitposting here and on Reddit. This is what my world is, not traveling or doing something “wonderful” and “meaningful.” If I keel over right now, would I be discontented or upset about how things ended? Not at all. This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it?
- jstummbillig 5y ago
  > This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it? Wonderful
- forgetfulness 5y ago
  > This is my life. Why would I be surprised that it ended how I lived it? Can't judge, I've spent a lot of time shitposting on Reddit myself, I just got tired of what I was doing and what it was causing on me about last week, let's see what I do now. But I don't want to warp my perspective on life so that "finding my lost pet", "finding love (and love again)", "first day of a new life in a different country", "that mushroom trip that was actually useful", etc. to weigh not too much more on the scale of things than "slacking off in Hacker News", all so I can be more comfortable with mortality. There's more ways to be comfortable with mortality anyway, heck, forgetting about it until death is imminent is probably better, works for a lot of people for sure. But it may just be a matter of delivery, you relax the wording a bit, and try to live every week as if it were the last one, or every month, it lets you cherish things that are more meaningful or actually enjoyable.

gameswithgo 5y ago

Life is like poker, not chess. You can make the best choices and often you will still lose.

indigochill 5y ago
Spun another way, in poker, although you're dealt an unplayable hand most of the time, the key to success is (a) patiently not playing bad hands and (b) recognizing the good hands and capitalizing on them correctly. That said, no matter how well you play, the game does end eventually. I like to think that, like poker, despite the variance, you have some degree of influence on how well the game ends.
- derbOac 5y ago
  It's more complicated than that though: life is more like a variant of poker where no one even agrees on the rules or what the goals of the players are.
batch12 5y ago
*always you will still lose. We will all die.
- themaninthedark 5y ago
  I don't like death and I would be in line just as quick as most people if I could be immortal and reasonably healthy. But is death loosing? I don't view death as the antithesis of life, more appropriately I think it mirrors conception/birth. I think of death more as a finale, the conclusion to your story be it grand or mundane. I also wonder if not for death would we cherish the events in life as greatly as we do? Think of the thinks that gave you pleasure as a child that you no longer care for as they have become stale and boring. Perhaps it would be so with living had we not death.

giantg2 5y ago

"eventually will wipe any individual out." Sure, eventually. It's one thing if people are getting cancer or having heart attacks later in life. It's a little concerning when a fairly large number of younger people are afflicted. The rate of cancer has risen about 30% for young people since the seventies. So it seems that there's something wrong in our environment or lifestyles that could be increasing risk. That's very concerning in my opinion. https://www.healthcentral.com/article/cancer-rates-rising-in-young-people https://www.healthcentral.com/article/cancer-rates-rising-in... And on the subject of dying from a heart attack in one's 20s. That's "significant", but 1 in 100,000 is pretty rare. Some could be congenital or obesity related, but the majority in that age group is due to substance abuse. That's a factor people can control, and thus not as scary to most people.

altcognito 5y ago
From the article: Better detection is also a likely contributor.
- giantg2 5y ago
  Yeah, but I would be more interested in the other two stated causes - environmental and lifestyle factors. These would contribute to a net increase and/or earlier onset.
qgin 5y ago
A lot of health-related things took a turn for the worse in the 70s Obesity was 13% in 1970. Now it’s 42%. Obesity can increase cancer risk by 50% https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/how-does-obesity-cause-cancer.h27Z1591413.html https://www.mdanderson.org/publications/focused-on-health/ho...
- giantg2 5y ago
  Yes, and what is contributing to obesity? Are there environmental factors affecting androgenic functions? Is it all just people being sedentary over eaters? Or something else?

kiba 5y ago

for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. No. Living longer means we have to live with our decisions. People who live short lives don't have to live with decisions that fucked the later generation years after they're long dead. The population limit on this planet isn't natural resources, but pollution, followed by heat dissipation because humans are all 100 watts space heaters. Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. How about we just live our life as best as we can? Trust me, it's miserable living without hope or wallowing in self pity.

kuhewa 5y ago
> followed by heat dissipation because humans are all 100 watts space heaters. Well that's an.. interesting take
- throwrugtime 5y ago
  People talk about 'natural resources' and about how we're overpopulated all the time, but don't often want to go into real specifics. My guess is the repressed desire for death and depopulation came first, and the narrative later. English-speaking culture is steeped in Christianity (even modern 'wokeism' is just another, more radical iteration of calvinism), and Christianity is a doomsday cult; we're fascinated by doomsday narratives, the end of the world, mass death- we're in love with these stories; look at zombie movies etc. The overpopulation meme is certainly going to be partially fed by how appealing 'the end of days' is to the western mind. (Right wingers have a doomsday narrative, too, it's just a biosocial one rather than an ecological/geographic one; modern technology and the resulting societal shifts lead to selection against intelligence, and societal decay propagates irreversibly, leading to a future of stupid, lazy, and most importantly small-souled bugmen.)
  - themaninthedark 5y ago
    That doesn't jive with most of my experiences. The Christian narrative I see is be fruitful and multiply, nature will provide. The people that I do see promoting this sort of population limit theory are new age hippies, vegans and the like. Recently seems very popular with more college educated folk. 'How can you think about having kids when you know how bad it is for the environment'

aeetes 5y ago

> will wipe any individual out. I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. This common claim that "we need to die to make room for other people" is not obviously true, good discussion here: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ufjFuHmJoysXrKXYQ/what-exactly-is-the-overpopulation-argument-in-regards-to https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ufjFuHmJoysXrKXYQ/what-exact... Also, don't be so quick to accept death as a good thing: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Aud7CL7uhz55KL8jG/transhumanism-as-simplified-humanism https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Aud7CL7uhz55KL8jG/transhuman.... It's basically the worst thing that can happen.

falcolas 5y ago
> It's basically the worst thing that can happen. For the individual, not the species as a whole. Or for the planet as a whole. Sure, we might not lose some existing fantastic thinkers and doers, but what happens to the new thinkers and doers? If Sir Isaac Newton was still alive, would Einstein have gotten the attention he did, having to fight against a well established hierarchy of scientists built over the millennia? Would governmental seats ever change? Would slavery have ever gone away in a world where human rights would have no need to progress?

greenmana 5y ago

If I knew this was my last day alive, I wouldn't be here sitting at work. Living every minute as if it was your last is actually pretty difficult to do. Or perhaps it means coming up with the understanding that it's not worth your time to stress about work. Just do the work and focus on what makes you happy. Maybe even quit and live a simpler life with less income? But you usually have houses to pay, kids to raise... it can become a prison of its own kind. There's always some magical reward waiting just around the corner, be it retirement, kids moving out, when you can finally focus on yourself again. How does one truly live every moment like it was their last?

latexr 5y ago

> Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. The thought may be freeing to you, but many others become paralysed by it, obsessing about “the right choices” at every moment. An alternate view: it is because we only have one limited life that our choices don’t matter. We and everyone our choices touch will die, and nothing will have mattered. Depending on your situation, that thought can fill you with dread or be profoundly calming. > Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. That is both impossible and (I’d argue) unhealthy. I wouldn’t waste my last minute cooking a meal, yet I need to spend an hour doing it now to survive another day. “The right choice” and living every moment as if it were the last seldom overlap. The Simpsons had a great joke on the platitude: https://youtu.be/lkAaQQal2ck?t=20 https://youtu.be/lkAaQQal2ck?t=20

betenoire 5y ago
Some things you do are for survival, of course you wouldn't do those in your final hour because survival isn't a concern anymore. If on your last day, you want to spend it with loved ones, and say, in nature or with music, then that's how you should be trying spend your life in general. It's a heuristic, no a literal instruction book.
- latexr 5y ago
  > Some things you do are for survival, of course you wouldn't do those in your final hour because survival isn't a concern anymore. And some things you do are not for survival, yet they continue to be the right choice if you’re not living your final day. Like mending your favourite t-shirt. Cooking a meal was an example which just happens to overlap with survival. The point stands. > If on your last day, you want to spend it with loved ones, and say, in nature or with music, then that's how you should be trying spend your life in general. > It's a heuristic, no a literal instruction book. What’s the point in saying it, then? If it amounts to “in general, you should try to spend your life the way you want”, don’t (effectively?) all living creatures do that by default without being told? If it’s literal, it’s impossible to follow. If it’s figurative, it’s meaningless. I used “platitude” deliberatedly: > a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful

jvanderbot 5y ago

I think more people are alive now than have ever lived. I also think that means the next generation or two will have so many people on the planet that literally everyone who ever lived could still be alive and it would be the same. Scarcity is not the problem. Death is so far inevitable, but it is not necessary.

nisegami 5y ago
The dead outnumber the living at over 14:1 https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-on-earth/ https://www.prb.org/articles/how-many-people-have-ever-lived...
- jvanderbot 5y ago
  Ah, perfect. I was mistaken.

paulpauper 5y ago

There is a lot wrong with this post Speaking in general terms, cancer is not a disease like a common cold. you don't say I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life This suggests a Malthusian, zero-sum world in which no new net value can be created. Someone could have said that 200 years ago, yet living standards are higher than ever in spite of more people than ever. Poverty rates worldwide continue to fall. And it's not just cancer, there are many ways one may pick the unlucky straw: it is not widely known, but the number of people who die from a heath attack in their 20s is significant. Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. This doesn't mean we need to accept death when it can be prevented. The promise and hope of technology is to expand human potential and not have to settle for fate. Someone again could have said this 200 years ago about any other medical condition that is now treatable or curable today, This is the sort of defeatist logic that is popular online these days, but we won't have to settle for just giving up.

oceanplexian 5y ago
It's definitely a form of fatalism; people who hold views like this are viewing it from a certain state of consciousness, and so they see the world through a lens that reflects the negative (Not that there aren't plenty of negative things going on in the world and the environment, but there is much more to be optimistic about). From my point of view if you look at the state of humanity objectively, it's pretty obvious that most of us are living our best lives compared to any time in history. Even the fact that we understand some of the damage we might be doing to the planet is a huge leap forward, since understanding the problem is the first step to finding a solution. And we have more tools and solutions than ever before in history: earth observation/space travel, genetic engineering, renewable energy, powerful, cheap and abundant computing, rapid prototyping etc, etc.

Reflecticon 5y ago

> I am at peace with that, for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Thank you for this wonderful thought! I always struggle with mortality and my place in the world. You offered me a window into the grander scheme of things, that doesn't fall back on God or you are just a small speck in the grander scheme of things. We are all here to keep our species going and hand over the marathon stick to the next generation and then step aside.

anonymouse94759 5y ago

> for we need to make space for the next generation (only adding people to planet earth would not be sustainable, as resources are scarce - imagine nobody would ever die). Being on this planet for a limited time period makes it more important to make the right choices, because we have only one life. Fertility rates are declining globally, even in Sub-Saharan Africa: https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/dramatic-drop-fertility-across-africa https://www.afd.fr/en/actualites/dramatic-drop-fertility-acr... Unless lifespans radically expand, we will eventually start to run out of people. If this were 4chan, I would tell you outright what I really think of you, but since it isn't, I won't.

arvinsim 5y ago
Since we live in a time of relative peace and technology, people often forget that population correlates to military might. I am pretty sure that once society decays enough that people start thinking of making war again, expect a population boom to happen.

fooblessmooo 5y ago

> Make the best of every minute you have, and live it as if it were your last. I’m against this advice because aside from the usual objections like practicality, it’s fundamentally based on fear of missing out and not having lived a good life. It’s a kind of striving and all striving leads to suffering. If you want to spend your afternoon navel gazing or looking at fish in the pond, that’s the true thing you should do. Free and easy wandering.

arvinsim 5y ago
Seems like the antithesis of hustle culture which is being pushed hard today. Although it seems to be that there is starting to be backlash on that.

bioinformatics 5y ago

The best way to reduce your chances of cancer is to either not be born or kill yourself. I did cancer research for many years, so, it's a very valid advice.