Nothing matters in 500 years

[Tintypographer]

I've posted on this before but keep coming back to it which is part of my major depressive disorder. I'm not a nihilist by philosophy but my brain always returns to saying, "in 500 years will this (insert crap here) matter?" I'm not building a pyramid or starting a major religion or defining a cultural art form in permanent materials safe from weathering or waging an epic battle that historians will define our species by the outcome. I'm living the say way that "Bob the middle ages serf" or "Wang the Mongolian peasant" or "Damostraphenes the Greek slave" did. I could catch COVID or ebola or get hit by a bus and die tomorrow or live until I'm 93 a burden on my family and friends and the result will be the same in 500 years. The only thing about Bob, Wang or Damo(short form) we know for certain is that their lives were so inconsequential that there is no record of their birth, life or death. They are the Schrodinger cat of existence. There is a billionth of a percent chance that their ancestor might have done something useful but that is a stretch. One can say "think of the effect that your suicide might have on your children" but going out to 500 years from now and I'm not saying 50 I'm saying 500 years and the USA has only been a country for 250 years, will that event matter realistically in 500 years. Before someone says "it could" by that logic many things "could" happen but we don't define a lot of risk by tiny percentages.

It's unhealthy but it sure is a place my brain goes a lot.

 

[Someone123]

It is something I think about- my life didn't turn out well, I fell far short of my potential, mainly due to cruelty from others when I was younger. I can connect with people much better now but the opportunities I had when I was younger, so this mess is close to unfixable. It might be fixable somewhat, but I think maybe I'm just too tired and disappointed to make the huge effort over a long period of time that it would take. oNe way I console myself is- none of us were evr going to be here for much overf a hundred years or so anyway, maybe the next place will work out better. But certain missed opportunities haunt me. If I had known better how to tell people who really cared from those who didn't, and how to connect better with those who did, I could have had an awesome life. It's too late to fix now, but I do think about how good things could have been every day.

 

[FuneralCry]

Life is just a pointless experience that we go through for the sake of it. We are only here because people decided to selfishly procreate. Everything is meaningless and it is just a distraction from death. It is true that nothing matters at all. There is no point to living. Things may seem important to us in the short term, but all of our problems will die with us. I take comfort from how meaningless life is, I look forward to my suffering ending and finally being at peace.

 

[juraviel]

personally i never really understood this point of view. whether it would matter what i do in my life 500 years from now or not, i'll be dead anyway. i think it's a low self esteem issue more than anything. people that are mentally healthy find meaning in day to day activities and that's plenty enough for them to enjoy life.

 

[toseeyousmile]

There's like 7 billion people living rn and only like a couple of dozen of em will be remembered in 500 years it's fine to fuck around and have fun

 

[jimmy7754]

doesn't help me at all but that's me not you

 

[LifeHasNoOptIn]

There's like 7 billion people living rn and only like a couple of dozen of em will be remembered in 500 years it's fine to fuck around and have fun

I suspect any names that are remembered from our time 500 years from now(if humanity somehow lasts that long) will be for bad reasons, not good.

 

[braindead911]

lol nothing matters now let alone 500 years

 

[Fadeawaaaay]

In 10 years most of this will be forgotten

 

[lostmylove]

Of course in grand scheme of things our impacts are insignificant on a personal level.

But I've always tried to not look at it in the context of that, rather than what impact can you have on individuals and what connections can you have with other people.

Perusing love is a valid cause and I think personally the main objective of life.

I don't believe life is meaningless or pointless. Rather that some people's experiences are too much to handle and that's where suicide is sometimes sad but rational in some cases.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Yeah, I do think like this too sometimes. It's the very small percentage of us that achieve anything really remarkable.

Still- to look at it even more pessimistically- most of these 'achievements' are to further the successes of mankind- and probably a lot of these things have been to the detriment of nature and the planet- which we need to survive. Ultimately- will it have been of any consequence who did what if and when we destroy ourselves?

While the cure for cancer will be a miracle for individual families, is it REALLY a good thing for us to keep procreating and living longer and longer?

I also have this weird opposite view that achievement probably doesn't mean a whole lot. One of the most cherished and special people to me (my Mum) died at 40. She worked as a telephonist before having me and lived probably a very average life. Yet to me, she is/was a very special person.

I guess the ideal is to leave the world a slightly better place than when you came into it- although I'm not sure I've even achieved that...

 

[btrtrb]

Completely agree. There is not point to all of this. It consoles me that everything won't matter a few years from now.

 

[Tintypographer]

personally i never really understood this point of view. whether it would matter what i do in my life 500 years from now or not, i'll be dead anyway. i think it's a low self esteem issue more than anything. people that are mentally healthy find meaning in day to day activities and that's plenty enough for them to enjoy life.

I know I'm not mentally healthy! All I think about is the fact that I don't matter, nothing I do matters and that I feel my only purpose is to do things for other people to justify things and eliminate risk. That's just me. Whether it's healthy or not is obvious, it's not. More than anything as a child I wanted to grow up to make sure my work and life had meaning. I've learned that the only thing my employers care about is that "the proper iso standards have been procured and meet the standards for moisture vapor transmission" which means I've gone to college for 10 plus years, gotten advanced degrees and live a life solely so that documents for regulators have boxes checked that no one will ever read or use unless there is an audit that someone does and all that will cause is more paperwork. My whole life means just some crap on paper to prove papers match up. There is no creativity, no joy, just hundreds of people wishing they didn't have to do what they do or trying to find meaning in moving paperwork around. Everywhere I have worked in engineering this is what we do. We don't create and build. We spend thousands of hours testing and covering our asses. And when I die they will have to convince some other dufus to keep the same stuff going because it is important.

I once tried the following for a company I consult with: "I said, I'll work for you on projects but I don't want to be paid. I'll work for free. My only specific point is that I want to be able to refuse with absolute perogative to not do things I would rather not do. I'll advise on manufacturing, I'll help with development, I'll answer questions, and I'll consult with the research teams. On quality assurance and regulatory I will choose not to work on those items and will not respond". The president of the company was explosively livid. He couldn't have his board take that risk. I don't see it as a risk at all. I think he knew that if I had no contract and was refusing payment they couldn't have any leverage to make me do that shit. They still come back over and over again trying to get me to take money.

I bet that a local sandwich shop needing employees would not take an employee who said "il work for free but only if I get to choose my own schedule and not do demeaning tasks" even if that was the best employee in the world. Our lives are completely part of crap that is trying to get crap done to justify and ensure that crap gets transferred to other people without risk.

I truly hate my life and hate who I am and I don't want to reframe myself. I have made enought money for a reasonable retirement, have no debt, have my health and my kids and I find that it's all been completely meaningless crap that has benefitted no one except people who push around paper and that forget about 500 years, it will have zero important in 5 years. No one but regulatory agencies will benefit. It's true that someone can explain why something is important in the following terms as though making you change your password is important "in order to protect our customers and our company we require that you change your password every 90 days..." But is it really that important? Does it really help protect the company or the customers or is it just covering the butt of the IT people? Can you actually state that "making you change your password into something you can't remember every 90 days" is what truly helps the company and customers? Is it actually valuable? Or do the people who want it done for covering risk convince you it's valuable so that they don't have to deal with you trying to search for meaning and value in your life when it's all just crap.

I believe all of the easy problems have been solved, all of the important projects have been completed, all of the good ideas have been had and all that's left is just justifying risk reduction and trying to tell yourself to "find joy in the little things"

If that's not what you want, you want to do things that matter and you want to have significant impact and help with what you do, there are no avenues for you to do it. Unless you reframe to make life have meaning on terms through rose colored glasses, life has no meaning.

 

[MicropBaldCurrycel]

Nope, most people are completely forgotten in a few generations , even if they done something special their descendants will only talk about them once a while, its not like future generations are gonna be talking about us all day every day.

Most people are forgotten in 100 years let alone 500.

 

[Someone123]

Truthfully companies need to have enough control over things so that they can get a job done the way they need to get this done- plus they can't have someone volunteering to do work that is normally paid work, because this could set them up for a lawsuit. Changing a password also doesn't seem like a big deal to me, this is a normal process for security at a company. I think you obviously have skills but I can see why the CEO would be very upset, they need to define the job in the way they need to get things done they way they need them done. I know a lot of engineers who find their work to be rewarding, it's a matter of hnow you look at it. There are a lot of ways to find meaning in work, especially in how you interact with people in the workplace, and every day you have a chance to make a difference by how you interact with others. To me your glass look 90% full compared to what so many people have in the workplace if you would see the good things here. That's just one perspective from someone who would much rather have your employment and financial situation, that's for sure.

 

[ornitier199]

Nothing matters now

 

[Someone123]

The way you interact with co-workers, kids, friends, and others matters nand then this carries through to other people over time- and this will still matter in 500 years as things carry through.

 

[TheBroken]

Current rate of disease, lack of healthcare resources, growing slums/poverty, environmental contamination, cruelty/crime, and dwindling food and/or clean water for what will soon be 8 billion people means the globe really has more along the lines of 100-200 years before near full breakdown. The curves of gas/oil consumption and global supply alone show these resources end in about 50-60 years and wind/solar/geothermal energy sources aren't going to power cities and neighborhoods. Best thing to do, if one is going to try and make it through and has the ability, is to get land with its own water well and ability to plant food plus raise chickens and/or small animals. What's coming isn't good. Suicide will be more widespread no matter what peoples opinions may be about the option.

 

[Someone123]

Current rate of disease, lack of healthcare resources, growing slums/poverty, environmental contamination, cruelty/crime, and dwindling food and/or clean water for what will soon be 8 billion people means the globe really has more along the lines of 100-200 years before near full breakdown. The curves of gas/oil consumption and global supply alone show these resources end in about 50-60 years and wind/solar/geothermal energy sources aren't going to power cities and neighborhoods. Best thing to do, if one is going to try and make it through and has the ability, is to get land with its own water well and ability to plant food plus raise chickens and/or small animals. What's coming isn't good. Suicide will be more widespread no matter what peoples opinions may be about the option.

Honestly, this set of issues is manageable for most people. 1% of people die by ctb, and this number probably won't chnage that much. I've fallen into the 1% who finjd this to be thier best option, but most people don't.

 

[Istanbulite]

yeah the last guy who knew you dies and then it's as if you never existed...depressing