Just... argh.

[camrogers]

I still consider it profoundly unjust that a person can spend decades learning who they are, dealing with their crap, understanding life, enduring the most breathtaking amount of pain, devoting themselves to becoming a better person, working it all out... and then just, inevitably, drop dead anyway. And it's not like any of that learning can be passed along, really, because most people need to go through that process in order for it to mean anything... just like everyone else did, including the aforementioned corpse. The entire setup results in Humanity, really, being little better than a cocker spaniel bashing its head against the door just because the doorbell's ringing.

Comments

[belegdel]

I once heard, fifth or sixth hand or something, that there is a theory that the only scientific goal really worth working on is immortality (or at least longevity). I can see the arguments for it. Death is such an awful waste.

Then again, sci-fi abounds with demonstrations of way the lack of death might be worse.

When I think about it I always end up see-sawing several times before deciding to think about something fluffy or at least solvable :)

(P.S. condolences if this is about someone close)

[camrogers]

Longevity could be worse if sustaining it was dependent on meeting a regular debt. If that price-point was set fairly high, then you've got a cubefarm dystopia of miserable people working shit jobs, kept under the thumb, toiling, simply because they're terrified of death. Anxiety would rocket. Quality of life would plummet, save for that of the effortlessly wealthy.

And no, it's not about anyone, but thanks. :) I can see how I might have given that impression.

[reddragdiva]

The only justification I can think of for the western world economic pyramid scheme we're all in is the remarkable advances in medicine it's funded.

[damien_wise]

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe."

[camrogers]

Preeeeetty much. In a nutshell. Very.

[reddragdiva]

The things you can pass on are the mental hacks that enable you to do more better. Not physical technologies, but things like writing (not the writing itself, but the ability to) and mathematics. Little superpowers of thinking are how civilisation actually advances.

As for the stuff you're talking about ... you are, after all, one of the people whose job it is to pass this stuff on in a form it can be passed on.