4 ms·

Would Einstein, Bardeen, and Fermi have been bored by immortality? I have a feeling not. There are endless curiosities in the universe. One is less easily bore

by j7ake 4y ago

Would Einstein, Bardeen, and Fermi have been bored by immortality? I have a feeling not. There are endless curiosities in the universe. One is less easily bored if one goes deep. Doing superficial things like international travel does get boring, by contrast.

andai 4y ago
Plus, imagine how annoying airport security will be in another two thousand years!
beefield 4y ago
> There are endless curiosities in the universe. I suspect that people who like to say that they would like to live "forever" or think that they would be interested "endlessly" in new things have not really thought through what infinity means. You might want to check Grahams number. And then spend a while thinking that even that number is not even a microscopic fraction of infinity. And if you still think you want to live forever. How on earth are you going to use your puny 100 billion neurons to experience, store and decide the order of experiencing and studying the endless Graham numbers of curiosities without at some point getting into a loop after you have had your brain in every single possible state? And when your brain has been in every possible state for say a billion times, you think it is not going to get boring?
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  ...okay, but I can ignore all those very extreme numbers if I stick with the existing context of living on earth immortally, because that's "only" a few billion years. > And when your brain has been in every possible state for say a billion times, you think it is not going to get boring? I do think that, because if I'm back in a previous state then I'm not growing more bored.
- rowanG077 4y ago
  Living forever is not possible. And it makes little sense to think about it. You have to substitute infinite with extremely long in these kind of conversations. And even if it were infinite. A human brain most likely doesn't have a finite state space.
telesilla 4y ago
The TV series The Good Place had a really good take on this, by the final season. Worth a watch for the philosophy lessons.
- cuteboy19 4y ago
  Spoilers ahead. Buddhist cosmology holds that we do sort of live forever via reincarnation. But just like the last season of the show, the Buddha realised that such an existence would be a kind of cosmic horror. You would be stuck in a cycle of desire for all eternity. So the solution would be to seek an escape aka Nirvana. I believe the show itself was heavily influenced by Buddhist ideas.
vorpalhex 4y ago
International travel can be superficial, but it can also be deep and meaningful. Get away from the tourist places, the tours, the cruises. Go to an area and try and stay in normal accomodations and eat the local spots and spend time with the people there. Strike up good conversations.
- Filligree 4y ago
  The lady in this story didn't seem like she was going for 'deep'. Four hundred years, and her biggest hobby was... knitting? Which it seemed like she'd turned into a job. I can't say I see myself in this at all, nor could I imagine any of my friends or family acting this way, but- Well, I have no trouble imagining that we're self-selecting for that. A lot of people do seem like they function on rote habit and instructions, and I don't know what to do about that.
  - vorpalhex 4y ago
    > A lot of people do seem like they function on rote habit and instructions, and I don't know what to do about that. Remove instruction. Encourage experimentation (and make failure cheap but not totally free).
    - Filligree 4y ago
      And when they flounder without learning anything? I’ve heard of teachers taking your advice. Usually, teachers who as children would have responded well to that same technique. Almost universally they learn why that wasn’t the technique used.
ThrowawayR2 4y ago
> "Would Einstein, Bardeen, and Fermi have been bored by immortality?" “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” -- Max Planck One sees the beginnings of this in Einstein's case with his "God does not play dice with the universe" opposition to quantum theory.

by j7ake 4y ago

andai 4y ago

Plus, imagine how annoying airport security will be in another two thousand years!

beefield 4y ago

> There are endless curiosities in the universe. I suspect that people who like to say that they would like to live "forever" or think that they would be interested "endlessly" in new things have not really thought through what infinity means. You might want to check Grahams number. And then spend a while thinking that even that number is not even a microscopic fraction of infinity. And if you still think you want to live forever. How on earth are you going to use your puny 100 billion neurons to experience, store and decide the order of experiencing and studying the endless Graham numbers of curiosities without at some point getting into a loop after you have had your brain in every single possible state? And when your brain has been in every possible state for say a billion times, you think it is not going to get boring?

Dylan16807 4y ago
...okay, but I can ignore all those very extreme numbers if I stick with the existing context of living on earth immortally, because that's "only" a few billion years. > And when your brain has been in every possible state for say a billion times, you think it is not going to get boring? I do think that, because if I'm back in a previous state then I'm not growing more bored.
rowanG077 4y ago
Living forever is not possible. And it makes little sense to think about it. You have to substitute infinite with extremely long in these kind of conversations. And even if it were infinite. A human brain most likely doesn't have a finite state space.

telesilla 4y ago

The TV series The Good Place had a really good take on this, by the final season. Worth a watch for the philosophy lessons.

cuteboy19 4y ago
Spoilers ahead. Buddhist cosmology holds that we do sort of live forever via reincarnation. But just like the last season of the show, the Buddha realised that such an existence would be a kind of cosmic horror. You would be stuck in a cycle of desire for all eternity. So the solution would be to seek an escape aka Nirvana. I believe the show itself was heavily influenced by Buddhist ideas.

vorpalhex 4y ago

International travel can be superficial, but it can also be deep and meaningful. Get away from the tourist places, the tours, the cruises. Go to an area and try and stay in normal accomodations and eat the local spots and spend time with the people there. Strike up good conversations.

Filligree 4y ago
The lady in this story didn't seem like she was going for 'deep'. Four hundred years, and her biggest hobby was... knitting? Which it seemed like she'd turned into a job. I can't say I see myself in this at all, nor could I imagine any of my friends or family acting this way, but- Well, I have no trouble imagining that we're self-selecting for that. A lot of people do seem like they function on rote habit and instructions, and I don't know what to do about that.
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  > A lot of people do seem like they function on rote habit and instructions, and I don't know what to do about that. Remove instruction. Encourage experimentation (and make failure cheap but not totally free).
  - Filligree 4y ago
    And when they flounder without learning anything? I’ve heard of teachers taking your advice. Usually, teachers who as children would have responded well to that same technique. Almost universally they learn why that wasn’t the technique used.

ThrowawayR2 4y ago

> "Would Einstein, Bardeen, and Fermi have been bored by immortality?" “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” -- Max Planck One sees the beginnings of this in Einstein's case with his "God does not play dice with the universe" opposition to quantum theory.