My thoughts regarding the opinion "Every single human being is special that's why you shouldn't kill yourself, you are unique!"

[Reuthry]

So you might have heard people use that sentence. People (pro-lifers more specifically) say everyone is unique and this is a reason for someone to keep living. I think that this is ridiculous and I will tell you why I think so. Also, I don't know if I had to post this to philosophy section, but I felt like it fits here better since my conclusion will be about living and dying.

For obvious reasons I have to add that this is just my opinion about a thing, it is surely subjective. I am not posting this thread to make everyone die or something. My aim here is to say the reason to keep living shouldn't be attributed to such so called reasons.

So by 2024, there are 8.1 billion people living on earth. This is a huge number, and for comparison I am adding the visualization of 1 million (not billion).

So that tiny dot next to number one represents one. Compare that to this huge cube, representing 1 million. So the number of people living on earth right now is 800 of this huge cubes approximately. It's even more than huge right? And 259 babies are born every minute (probably even more since this data is from 2021). And 105 people die every minute on earth.

I would ask, I wonder how many people you know out of this 105 people dying every minute? The answer is quite likely to be 0 as it seems. Nearly every person's death affects others in some sort of way. But we are too far away from knowing about most of them. And another number I will add here is how many people ever lived on earth. It's estimated that 117 billion people were born in the history of the world.

Then they will show up and say "Technically there are so many, much more than people ever lived, possible combinations of genes for humans is 70,368,744,177,664. So you are special anyway."

I don't agree with that.

Some random boring fun facts math talk here because we are talking about big numbers right? Feel free to jump to the other paragraph below. Outcomes of theoretical probability and experimental probability are quite different. Basically what it means is, think about a coin. Mathematically if you flip a coin 10 times, 5 of them will be heads and the other five will be tails. But (I encourage you to get a coin and try it on your own) in reality the numbers may be drastically different. You can get 3 heads and 7 tails, you can even get 10 heads and no tails. But this doesn't mean that theoretical probability is debunked and unnecessary. In fact what's so interesting is when you increase the number of flips, like 1000 flips let's say, the ratio of heads will tend to get closer and closer to 1 (1:1, one in two flips is heads, the other one is tails) as the number of flips increase.

First of all, what is the definition of uniqueness in the title of the thread we are talking about? Is it numbers, the characteristics of people, is it ideas, there are tons of different criterias. In my humble opinion (this is where "all of these words are subjective" comes into play) the uniqueness used here (at least should be used here) is not numbers, but characteristics, the personalities, the thoughts that people have and the things they do. What makes someone different than the other isn't only their genes. I mean take a look at outside, there are hundreds of people who are the same. This is also subjective though. For you some guy may be just a human, but if he has children for his children he is a father and the children are more likely to think that he is not a random person.

Besides, there are a ton of unique (in terms of genetics) people on earth, but how many of them make a difference? How many of them are important for the world.

Remember the number of people die every day. Their death probably caused some bad things around the dead person. The family for example, if someone murdered that person, it would be not only bad, but traumatizing for the family, not only family, friends, people live nearby etc. But at the end of the day, is it really going to affect any single human being after 100 years passed?

So the conclusion here in this unnecessarily long text is:
1- Uniqueness isn't a valid reason to force someone to live.
2- Someone's death doesn't really matter in long term.
3- The importance of someone is depending on their thoughts and actions.

Well if you made it here, thanks, unfortunately the text didn't ended up in the way I initially wanted it to be. If I wasted your time, I am sorry about it.

 

[ijustwishtodie]

To add on to this, being special and/or unique isn't always a good thing either. For example, I may be wrong, but I'd say that I'm unique in the aspect of never having made a single friend or acquaintance throughout my entire life and especially throughout school too. It's unheard of to have somebody who went to school and never made a single acquaintance during their childhood. Additionally, I think that I'm unique in how easily I give up as not many people, even the ones on this forum, give up easily. From what I've seen, the people here only give up after exhausting most, or all, of their options and the ones who never become suicidal don't give up even if some of them go through an issue as brutal as some people here have. However, I didn't really try to do anything and I honestly don't want to try because I find it painful that I have to work on myself all my life... it's why I love the idea of death so much as it's the only state where I can be in inertia and not get punished for it.

Point is, being unique doesn't always mean it's a good thing

Aside from that, I agree with everything that you wrote and I think you phrased it really well. We really aren't as unique as pro life people insinuate because most of us goes through the exact same things during life. I feel like people think they're unique because of how they have loved ones and watch lots of shows in where they see a main character and attribute themselves to the main character instead of one of the background characters. Like you said, in 100 years time, nobody will even know our names.

How can we be unique if we're just slaving our lives away to some corporation like the majority of other humans are?

 

[Forever Sleep]

I think it also largely depends on the value someone places on our species. What have humans achieved that hasn't been to 1.) Benefit themselves and other humans or 2.) Try desperately hard to reverse some of the damage this species has done already- to the earth, to animals, to itself even?!!

So- I'd argue- if you like humans. If you think we are capable of incredible things- which I'd say- we are- then great! It doesn't mean we're all capable of great things of course. Plus- how great is it really that we're killing off the very planet we need to survive on?!! I guess this is a debatable argument but I'd say the sheer volume of us is the major problem in all this.

So- unless someone out there is clever enough to reverse global warming, clean up pollution, restore the acres of nature we've utterly destroyed- just how useful are any of us ultimately?!! Most of us are really just adding to the problem by consuming and polluting our way through life. What's going to be the point of any of it if we cause our own extinction through our own 'magnificence'? It's kind of ludicrous!

I'd also argue- do we really want to be a slave race? So- a very useful, brainy person has to live- even if they are chronically ill and want to die- because what? They're too useful to let go? That's pretty monstrous! We're not (or shouldn't be treated as) robots!

I'd argue you don't have to be exceptionally talented to enjoy life though. Some people get enough out of enjoying what other great humans have done- music, literature, films, art, dance- whatever. Still though- it surely needs to be up to them whether they value those things enough to enjoy life.

But yeah- I mean- snowflakes are all unique. I mean- awesome but kind of- what does that mean? We need to try and save them all? Most creatures in life are unique. You're not going to get that many identical chickens. They estimate 202 million chickens- that's 140,000 per minute get slaughtered per day for us to eat. How much did we care about their 'uniqueness'?

Plus- it's just a weird statement on the face of it. I get it of course. As in- because you are unique- you bring a unique, special perspective and talents to this world. What about people who aren't quite unique though? Identicle twins? Are they special? Are they both as special as one another? What does it matter then if one dies? They had a spare! I mean- it's propostorous! ALL life that is sentient matters- as in- it ought to be respected. But- it should be respected to decide its own destiny because- that's what we're talking about surely? The ability to perceive this world and decide where our place is in it. It should be a choice though- not a conscription!

 

[Slow_Farewell]

So you might have heard people use that sentence. People (pro-lifers more specifically) say everyone is unique and this is a reason for someone to keep living. I think that this is ridiculous and I will tell you why I think so. Also, I don't know if I had to post this to philosophy section, but I felt like it fits here better since my conclusion will be about living and dying.

For obvious reasons I have to add that this is just my opinion about a thing, it is surely subjective. I am not posting this thread to make everyone die or something. My aim here is to say the reason to keep living shouldn't be attributed to such so called reasons.

So by 2024, there are 8.1 billion people living on earth. This is a huge number, and for comparison I am adding the visualization of 1 million (not billion).
View attachment 126984
So that tiny dot next to number one represents one. Compare that to this huge cube, representing 1 million. So the number of people living on earth right now is 800 of this huge cubes approximately. It's even more than huge right? And 259 babies are born every minute (probably even more since this data is from 2021). And 105 people die every minute on earth.

I would ask, I wonder how many people you know out of this 105 people dying every minute? The answer is quite likely to be 0 as it seems. Nearly every person's death affects others in some sort of way. But we are too far away from knowing about most of them. And another number I will add here is how many people ever lived on earth. It's estimated that 117 billion people were born in the history of the world.

Then they will show up and say "Technically there are so many, much more than people ever lived, possible combinations of genes for humans is 70,368,744,177,664. So you are special anyway."

I don't agree with that.

Some random boring fun facts math talk here because we are talking about big numbers right? Feel free to jump to the other paragraph below. Outcomes of theoretical probability and experimental probability are quite different. Basically what it means is, think about a coin. Mathematically if you flip a coin 10 times, 5 of them will be heads and the other five will be tails. But (I encourage you to get a coin and try it on your own) in reality the numbers may be drastically different. You can get 3 heads and 7 tails, you can even get 10 heads and no tails. But this doesn't mean that theoretical probability is debunked and unnecessary. In fact what's so interesting is when you increase the number of flips, like 1000 flips let's say, the ratio of heads will tend to get closer and closer to 1 (1:1, one in two flips is heads, the other one is tails) as the number of flips increase.

First of all, what is the definition of uniqueness in the title of the thread we are talking about? Is it numbers, the characteristics of people, is it ideas, there are tons of different criterias. In my humble opinion (this is where "all of these words are subjective" comes into play) the uniqueness used here (at least should be used here) is not numbers, but characteristics, the personalities, the thoughts that people have and the things they do. What makes someone different than the other isn't only their genes. I mean take a look at outside, there are hundreds of people who are the same. This is also subjective though. For you some guy may be just a human, but if he has children for his children he is a father and the children are more likely to think that he is not a random person.

Besides, there are a ton of unique (in terms of genetics) people on earth, but how many of them make a difference? How many of them are important for the world.

Remember the number of people die every day. Their death probably caused some bad things around the dead person. The family for example, if someone murdered that person, it would be not only bad, but traumatizing for the family, not only family, friends, people live nearby etc. But at the end of the day, is it really going to affect any single human being after 100 years passed?

So the conclusion here in this unnecessarily long text is:
1- Uniqueness isn't a valid reason to force someone to live.
2- Someone's death doesn't really matter in long term.
3- The importance of someone is depending on their thoughts and actions.

Well if you made it here, thanks, unfortunately the text didn't ended up in the way I initially wanted it to be. If I wasted your time, I am sorry about it.

I. Love. This.
Yes, it's a long read, but:
1) it shows the easy to follow thought process.
2) makes valid points
3) Shows good structure.

Personally, the word "unique" is something that is overused to the point that it loses meaning. As a kid, we're told we're "unique", heck, I bet we're guilty of saying it to kids at one time or another, under the guise of being kind or protecting innocence.
I agree with all 3 points you made. If i could, I'd submit that we're not unique anyway. Think of ants: we see colonies of them, yet we couldnt tell one from the other if there are two. An oversimplification, i know.

 

[Reuthry]

I. Love. This.
Yes, it's a long read, but:
1) it shows the easy to follow thought process.
2) makes valid points
3) Shows good structure.

Personally, the word "unique" is something that is overused to the point that it loses meaning. As a kid, we're told we're "unique", heck, I bet we're guilty of saying it to kids at one time or another, under the guise of being kind or protecting innocence.
I agree with all 3 points you made. If i could, I'd submit that we're not unique anyway. Think of ants: we see colonies of them, yet we couldnt tell one from the other if there are two. An oversimplification, i know.

Exactly.
We are like ants as you said, and I think humans are just bigger in size in this sense, I know humans are more developed. But you know we tend to think small things doesn't really matter, I mean living things. Same applies to us. The universe is greater than humankind, compared to everything, one human doesn't really matter anyway, imagine the total mass of every single thing in it. Let alone universe, a person individually doesn't really matter on earth too, compared to other population. I mean even if like a whole country disappears, humankind won't be bothered in long term. Even 10,000 people would be enough for keeping up the existence of the community I guess.