Discussion Life is Meaningless (Analogy)

[Thinking]

When I think about life being meaningless, here is how I envision it:

Imagine you are standing in the middle of a line which represents all of time itself. You look ahead of you (this is all the future time to come), and even with binoculars you cannot see where the line ends. Then you turn and look behind you (this all the past time that has ever happened), and even with binoculars, the line fades into the horizon, going on for infinity.

Now, place a dot where you are standing on this line, and in your mind's eye, zoom out so as to view the line from the outside. You zoom farther and farther out, but you still cannot see where the line ends, since time goes on for infinity in every direction. As you zoom out, you also see the dot representing you get smaller and smaller until it blips out of sight, lost in the vastness of time.

So ultimately, whatever happens to that tiny dot, whatever actions that dot takes, whatever kind of life that dot lives, good or bad, means nothing in the grand scheme of time. Time will continue forever onward and in comparison that dot is nothing, a mere microscopic blip in the changing universe.

For me, this is reassuring to think about, because it means all of my problems and all of the problems of today's world are just tiny, insignificant blips in the vastness of time. Nothing matters, and maybe that's a good thing.

 

[TheSoulless]

This is a good analogy. Silver lining.

 

[Green Destiny]

I like this perception of existing. Years from now hardly anyone will remember me and I prefer it that way. I don't wan't to be remembered and fade from memory just how I was before I existed to begin with.

 

[suicidebabyseal]

I don't know about this analogy, let me try to make a counter to it.

Time only exists because there is someone (a dot) that is aware of it existence. Existence is not possible without awareness. And what is a line but a set of an infinite amount of dots that extends infinitely in two directions? That line is there because of the existence of such dots.

I don't want to say that life has a meaning. Because I don't think it does. But that maybe it is not the most suitable analogy to life.

 

[Thinking]

I don't know about this analogy, let me try to make a counter to it.

Time only exists because there is someone (a dot) that is aware of it existence. Existence is not possible without awareness. And what is a line but a set of an infinite amount of dots that extends infinitely in two directions? That line is there because of the existence of such dots.

I don't want to say that life has a meaning. Because I don't think it does. But that maybe it is not the most suitable analogy to life.

Interesting point. To that I would argue that time exists even when nothing is aware of its existence. Think of the Big Bang. The nitrogen, hydrogen, etc. we're not aware of the passing of time, and yet with our human brains we can see that a great deal of time did in fact pass.