Optimistic Nihilism - by Kurzgesagt

August 8, 2023

Favorite quotes from the video transcript:

Intro: Existential Dread

Human existence is scary and confusing.
A few hundred thousand years ago, we became conscious and found ourselves in a strange place. […]

But the older we got, the more we learned about the world and ourselves. […]

We learned, in awe, that we live on a moist speck of dust moving around a medium-sized star in a quiet region of one arm of an average galaxy, which is part of a galaxy group that we will never leave. And this group is only one of thousands that, together, make up a galaxy supercluster. But even our supercluster is only one in thousands that make up what we call the observable universe.

The universe might be a million times bigger, but we will never know. […]

But size is not the most troubling concept we have to deal with. It's time, or, more precisely, the time we have.

If you're lucky enough to live to one hundred, you have five thousand two hundred weeks at your disposal. If you're twenty-five now, then you have three thousand nine hundred weeks left. If you're going to die at seventy, then there are two thousand three hundred and forty weeks left - a lot of time, but also ... not really.

And then what? Your biological processes will break down, and the dynamic pattern that is you will stop being dynamic. It will dissolve until there is no you left. Some believe that there is a part of us we can't see or measure, but we have no way to find out, so this life might be it and we might end up dead forever.

This is less scary than it sounds, though. If you don't remember the 13.75 billion years that went by before you existed, then the trillions and trillions and trillions of years that come after will pass in no time once you're gone.

Close your eyes. Count to 1. That's how long forever feels. And as far as we know, in the end, the universe itself will die and nothing will ever change again.

Counter: Optimistic Nihilism

It seems very unlikely that 200 trillion, trillion stars have been made for us. In a way, it feels like the cruelest joke in existence has been played on us. We became self-aware only to realize this story is not about us. […]

You only get one shot at life, which is scary, but it also sets you free. […]

If our life is all we get to experience, then it's the only thing that matters. […]

Humans will most certainly cease to exist at some point, but before we do, we get to explore ourselves and the world around us. […]

The fact that we're even able to think about these things is already kind of incredible.

It's easy to think of ourselves as separated from everything, but this is not true. We are as much the universe as a neutron star or a black hole or a nebula. Even better, actually, we are its thinking and feeling part: the center organs of the universe.

We are truly free in a universe-sized playground.