We're all going to be dead in 100 years.

I find this a really comforting thing to think about - it helps to remind me that nothing really matters.

There's so many people on the planet, and you only interact with a tiny proportion of them. You only have to walk down the street to realise how insignificant you are. Most people have no idea you exist or give a **** about you anyway. Give it a couple of generations and chances are you'll be completely forgotten.

Do you ever just stop and think how tiny and insignificant the Earth is in relation to the universe? We're just one planet of eight in our solar system, all orbiting the sun. The sun is just one of billions of stars in our galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe, all billions of miles away from each other. It's so strange to think that right now there's galaxies colliding and supernovas and stuff happening.

Nothing matters in the grand scale of things.

Thinking in this way helps me not to get stressed and to stop worrying about things.

Not really sure what the point of this thread was, but oh well. Thoughts?

(edited 9 years ago)

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Reply 1

Kvothe the Arcane

Reflecting on my insignificance does not decrease my anxiety.
It is humbling though. I give you that.

Reply 2

username1398367

I have to live with myself for the rest of my life; I am the centre of my universe.

Reply 3

Clynester

Contrary to the title of the thread, scientists believe that the first person to live to be one thousand years old is alive today.

Reply 4

the_pie_man

whilst knowing this for a lontg time, i've only just started to realise this. it doesnt really reduce my anixety though, but does depress me a bit.

Cheery one you are!

True, true.

Original post by ummm

How did you deduce that nothing in our lives matters just because the universe is large? I fail to see any connection between the size of the universe and our emotional happiness derived from things in our lives feeling important.

Reply 8

EllieC130

I don't find that at all comforting lol; rather a bit terrifying. I want things to matter you know? Still you make some small impact on everyone you know so that'll do me.

Reply 9

TurboCretin

Well if you really want to go for it, the Universe may well contract and eventually destroy us and everything we have ever known. That is, if we manage to escape Earth to another habitable planet before the Sun engulfs us when it dies.

Reply 10

username909838

We get remembered by family, but then only for a short while because they eventually die. The people who remember them then die. Etc.. We all end up in the same place regardless of who we are/what we do. It's just that a small percentage, athletes, World leaders, musicians, actors etc, get a place in history.

Reply 11

Bassetts

But seriously, if 'nothing really matters', then there would be no law and order in society, no one would supply the food to your local shops, no one would supply your home with electricity/gas/heating, no one would have built the house you're currently living in, no one would teach you basic skills like reading and writing etc.

Because after all, nothing really matters. :rolleyes:

Reply 12

uberteknik

On the other hand: if it so happens that there is little or no life elsewhere in the universe - just think about how precious we-all are on this litte jewel of a planet in the whole of the cosmos.

Reply 13

eekeek

Most of us are extrodinarily lucky to be born at all and have consciousness and be able to experience the universe. The fact that we're all going to die, spurs me on to do and see as much of the world as I can. Be kind and make the very best of whatever potential you have and you'll have a pretty good life.

Reply 14

miser

When I was a child I once said to my granddad that there was no point being an ant (I thought they were totally insignificant). Then he said you could say the same about us. Now he's dead and I'm not, and like OP says, soon there won't be anyone around who even remembers him. I'm not sure that this thought is comforting, but it gives me some humility.

I disagree that 'nothing matters'. The universe is mostly useless. The things that are useful are the things that are useful to conscious perspectives that benefit from them. By virtue of so much life being in one place, a lot of things around us matter. I disagree with my granddad (if he wasn't just trying to challenge me) - I think I am capable of significance, since I believe all kindness is significant.

Reply 15

furryface12

I'd be inclined to think the opposite. If I won't be around in a hundred years I'd better make the most of what I've got then, and make life worth living. But each to their own, I guess.

Reply 16

517340

Currently the oldest living man in the world is 111 years old.

That means just over 111 years ago there were a completely different set of people walking the planet. That's not depressing, that's FASCINATING! We pass down what we've learnt from generation to generation, we learn more and build from our fathers' backs, we find new ways to store and teach what we have learnt and we avoid the mistakes done in the past.

You may think that you're insignificant as a singular human being but you're so much more than that, you're part of a progression of the most frighteningly powerful species. The way you affect and influence people in your lifetime will have an effect on how they become as a person, who will in turn affect someone else differently be it positively or negatively. And so in a butterfly effect, were it not for you to make someone's day, they may not have brought their life back from the thread they were about to cut, and so would not have been able to raise a child who could be the grandfather for the person who has the potential for an idea on how to save the energy crisis. The world would become a completely different place if it were not for you to walk the planet. You may not get your name into a history book, you may never see your own face on TV, your next-door neighbour may never see your face, but as long as you do SOMETHING, anything, you're part of the unwritten book of history of the world.

You're incredibly important, but that's not defined by some lines of a piece of paper, it doesn't make you any more or less important, everyone is key to our progression to reach for the stars. And become gods in our own right.

Reply 17

xDave-

Just think about how much life has existed on the planet. They reckon life first began 3.5 billion years ago. All that life from then to now is dead! That's a lot of death. We live with one group of beings, and yeah we'll all be dead soon (some animals will live longer than 100, and even some humans). It's cool to think that we're all related to the first lifeform(s) - an unbroken chain that stretches across billions of years. That'd be a long family tree.

But I don't find any of this comforting, no, not at all. It's absolutely horrifying. Earth is stunningly beautiful, and I imagine the depths of the universe to be even more so. And I'll never get to visit any of it. I have to relinquish my life as the universe continues on for billions of years. I find it a bit disturbing that all this stuff will happen without me. It's hard to deal with.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 18

lucaf

I don't find the idea of me dying comforting at all, no matter how far off. I am probably a quarter of the way through my life already, just three more of what I have already had and then nothing? That is terrifying.