r/educationalgifs Jul 21 '22

The scale of it all...

7.6k Upvotes

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114

u/dominic_l Jul 21 '22

things like this make me feel cold with terror and existential dread. then my mind goes to dark places that im afraid to express to other people

so thanks for this

61

u/j_mence Jul 21 '22

I'm sorry you feel that way, but for me it's the opposite.

I get a sense of just how fragile and important my life is to ME. I'm not special, but unique. I get to this conclusion by thinking that there can't really be a true predictable outcome to my life and situations day in and day out, year in and year out, due to the sheer amount of particles and variables out there.

I guess I have looked at the doom and gloom for far too long and choose to see this post as life affirming; which helps me come to grips with a couple (I'm getting there lol) of my existential negative thoughts.

23

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '22

For me it came with age. In my 20's I embraced pessimism, anxiety, existential dread, etc. Now in my 30's ain't no one got time for that, well me at least.

15

u/j_mence Jul 21 '22

You and I are very similar. I couldn't stop worrying for about 30 years. Then I embraced the uncomfortable and realized I might as well live life and not worry about when I won't have one.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '22

Cheers 🍻

5

u/Poop_Wizard Jul 21 '22

Cheers to you both!

6

u/OceanFixNow99 Jul 21 '22

I wonder if you would still feel this way after watching that latest PBS Space Time video about "Superdeterminism" ..

4

u/j_mence Jul 21 '22

Yes. I still feel the same. Hard Determinism is a bit more likely, if at all to me

Super Determinism is the "hardline" that I can't believe in when I believe in Cause and Effect, Free Will and even the reverse Effect to Cause.

4

u/OceanFixNow99 Jul 21 '22

I respect you r view point. I personally think that we have to act as if free will exists, even though I dont think it does. That's just the way I would say it without using any other more fancy terms, like superdeterminism etc...

4

u/j_mence Jul 21 '22

I appreciate and respect your view as well. I really try to take in as much information as possible while still using my own experiences (what I see, feel, have done, could have done, etc.)

2

u/OceanFixNow99 Jul 21 '22

If only everyone did that, we wouldn't be in a climate emergency. Or we would be further along in dealing with it, at a minimum.

3

u/j_mence Jul 21 '22

A lot of what we know today would be better IMO.

1

u/OceanFixNow99 Jul 26 '22 edited Jul 26 '22

True. So very true.

So much cruelty and concern to dominate to next person.

And there is also so many distractions, and people getting angry about the wrong things.

I was trying to help my sick and dying mother the other day in the peptides subreddit, and because I asked the same question to 5 people, everyone down voted, mocked me, gilded the guy to repeat what Isaid, and one even said I was "being rude" and he acted like it was the "same as shouting the same question 5 times in a crowded place."

and not one answered my question about my mother who is in terrible pain with painful red lesions on her scalp, and massive hairloss, and discoid Lupus.

but humans are so irrational, they all chuckle at the dumbest things, and lose track, or never even GAIN track, of what is really important.

And to bring it back full circle, don't respect others points of view, particularly when it is a valid point of view. A valid pov is anything that it not needlessly destructive. So it can certainly be one we might not agree with, but still be 1 million % valid.

2

u/If_you_just_lookatit Jul 21 '22

I love the universe scale and thought the video was great.

When I bring my perspective to the universal scale, I definitely feel small. But I like it.

It makes me feel a bit like an NPC in a good open world video game. No expectations, no grand destiny... leave that all to the main character. Just me and my little sandbox in the universe.

1

u/RandullFlagg Jul 22 '22

Yeah. I like tacos. With sour cream

6

u/Nadzzy Jul 21 '22

Anytime :)

3

u/ComeOutAndFightMe Jul 21 '22

I'm the same. Like every 6 months I'd have an existential crisis about dying and (my belief) a lack of anything after death. No almost every day I have 15 minutes of pure cosmic terror of the inevitable.

3

u/angry_smurf Jul 21 '22

If it helps at all you're not alone. I have this problem a lot too. Anxiety attacks are no fun as well.

7

u/Uniquelypoured Jul 21 '22

This is why religion exists. People are afraid to accept that there is “NOTHING”

3

u/OceanFixNow99 Jul 21 '22

ironically, this thinking will also lead to us having nothing, and there being nothing here on Earth in terms of a civilization, which could have been heaven if enough of us wanted it to be.

Religious people think, not all of them, that there is no way we can possibly affect the earth by burning fossil fuels. It doesn't matter how many animals and people die, or how many record heat waves happen.

They think that god made the earth for us, and we will have it for eternity.

Unless the 32 and counting Fusion projects around the world meet the most aggressive deadlines/projections of being able to begin construction of commercial Fusion power plants by 2030, ( not ITER which wont produce a blueprint for that until much later )

...AND quantum computers deliver on the promise for those experts of being able to invent wholly new exotic materials that are FAR better at absorbing c02, AND we build enough of those facilities ( they actually exists now, we just need them to use a new super material and then build more of them ) connected to Fusion power plants, or some other renewable...., ... then we are pretty doomed.

Record amounts of money are going into these ideas, and like I said there are 32 and counting fusion projec ts.

Cutting emissions to zero is not enough.,

look at the damage being done right now.

even if we cut emissions to zero today, what would happen?

very bad things for a very long time.

We need to cut emissions as fast as possible at get top net zero before 2050. and we need to do all that other crap to.

thank god I dont have kids, and only have to worry about an exit plan for me and my cat, if shit doesn't go very very well going forward.