Optimistic Nihilism

Human existence is terrifying and confusing. A few hundred thousand years ago we became conscious and found ourselves in a sacred place. This place was full of other beings. Some of us could eat; some could eat us. There were liquid substances that we could drink; things through which we form other things. In the sky, during the day, there was a small yellow ball that warmed our skin. At night it was filled with beautiful lights. This place was definitely made for us. Something was watching us. We were at home. He made everything so much less scary and confusing.

But the older we get, the more we learn about ourselves and the world around us. We learned that the dim lights in the sky don't shine so we can see something beautiful, they just shine. We learned that we are not at the center of what we now call the universe and that it is much, much older than we thought. We learned that we are made up of many small, dead things that create larger things that are alive, for reasons unknown to us, and that we are just a temporary phase of a story that repeats itself over a billion years.

To our amazement, we discovered that we live on a mote of moist dust orbiting an average star in a dormant region of an arm of an average galaxy, which is part of a galaxy cluster from which we will never be able to leave. And this galaxy cluster is just one of thousands that, along with others, form a galactic supercluster. But even our supercluster is just one of thousands that make up what we call the observable universe. The universe may be millions of times larger, but we will never know. We can give numerical descriptions like 200 billion galaxies or trillions of stars or zillions of planets, but all these numbers are meaningless.

Our minds cannot imagine these numbers. The universe is very big. There is a lot of that. But size is not the most problematic concept we have to deal with. It is time, or, more specifically, the time we have. If you are lucky enough to live to be 100, you have 5,200 weeks at your disposal. If you are now 25 years old, you have 3900 weeks left. If you die at age 70, you will live another 2,340 weeks; a long time, but not really. And then what? Your biological processes will stop and the dynamic configurations that you are will no longer be dynamic.

They will crumble until there is nothing left of you. Some believe that there is a part of us that we cannot see or measure, but we have no way of testing it, so this life is probably the only one and we may be dead forever. But this is less scary than it seems. If you do not remember the 13.75 billion years that passed before you existed, then the trillions of trillions of years that follow will pass in a very short time after your death. Close your eyes. Count to 1. That is the feeling of infinity. And, as far as we know, in the end, the universe itself will die and nothing will happen again.

Our videos cause existential angst in many people and these last few minutes probably haven't helped. So this time we want to offer another way of looking at these things: a subjective and non-scientific view. The Kurzgesagt philosophy, let's say. Please do not take it as an absolute truth; We have the same experience that you have in human existence. We fight existential angst with

optimistic

nihilism

. What do we mean by this? In short, it seems very unlikely that 200 trillion trillion stars were created for us. In some ways, it seems like we've been played the saltiest joke ever. We become aware only to realize that this story is not for us.

While it's great to know about electrons and mitochondria, science doesn't offer enough to make our existence any less depressing. OK, so what? You only have one temptation in life, which is scary, but it also sets you free. If the universe ends in a "heat death", all the embarrassments you have suffered in your life will be forgotten. Any mistakes you made won't matter in the end. Everything bad you have done will disappear. If our life is the only thing we have, then it is the only thing that matters. If the universe has no principles, the only principles necessary are those we decide.

If the universe has no purpose, then we are the ones who choose the purpose. In all likelihood, the human species will disappear sooner or later, but before we do, we have the opportunity to explore ourselves and the world around us. We can experience feelings. We can experience food, books, sunrises and the feeling of being together. The very fact that we are able to think about these things is magnificent. It is easy to think that we are separate from everything else, but this is not true. We are both the universe and a neutrino star, a black hole or a nebula.

Even better, we are the thinking and feeling part, the central organs of the universe. We are completely free in a playground the size of a universe, so why not tempt ourselves to enjoy happiness and create some kind of utopia in the stars? It's not like we have it all figured out. We don't know why the laws of the universe are the way they are, how life began and what it is. We do not know what consciousness is or if we are alone in the universe. But we can try to find some answers. There are billions of stars to visit, diseases to cure, people to help, feelings to experience and video games to play.

There's still much to do. To conclude, you have used an important part of your time. If this is our only chance in life, there is no reason why we shouldn't enjoy it and live as happily as we can. Bonus points if you improve other people's lives. More points will be added if you contribute to the construction of a human galactic kingdom. Do things that make you feel good. You are the one who decides what good means to you.