I notice I felt happier just seeing the title, so on hedonic grounds you’ve succeeded already :-)
I’m scared to mention these two additional options, but perhaps they should be there for overall completeness in a brainstorm which isn’t immediately requiring proofs on any of the options, and in a post where “Happy minds” is mentioned as an objective:
1. None of these solutions seem highly plausible, so that means we are not too far away from philosophies and concepts about immortality that are historically (but not exclusively) linked to major religions. Cultivating an “immortal soul” and going on to an “afterlife” may be high risk, and thought ridiculous by many, but on the plus side it is at least attemptable, within a single lifetime. The buddhist concept of “clear light” and “rebirth” (rather than reincarnation as in Hinduism) might also be interesting, as it doesn’t rely on the concept of a soul. See also Shankara’s “nonduality”.
NB I’m not asking or recommending anyone to “get religion” or saying religion is “true” but that their concepts sometimes find analogues in science and reality, so can be useful for brainstorming completeness, that’s all.
2. If we take a more reductionist / psychological approach and reduce the problem to …
(a) despair in the futility of doing anything in an impermanent universe or
(b) fear of death and so a desire for immortality …
… it might be worth considering despair work, distraction strategies, fear work, anti-depressants and other mind-altering strategies, so that these emotions become less problematic.
If someone suggested that these two strategies could also be psychological evasions, I’d have to agree, but maybe that applies to all of them?
The ultimate truth may turn out to be, “nothing works, and all life is doomed!” So perhaps we need ….
Interestingly, if no God exists, then all possible things should exist, and thus there is no end for our universe. To limit the number of actually existing things, we need some supernatural force, which allows only some worlds to exist, but which is not part of any of these worlds.
Just happened on this post while doing some research for a script I’m writing. I find it all so interesting. My education involves a lot of theology and this comment makes me think of the famous pendulum swings throughout theological history between pantheism and transcendentalism. Either God is in all things, or they are completely “above” all things and unknowable. The former is more akin to what you’re suggesting—that the things we experience are the infinite, as opposed to the latter which says we experience the limited compared to the unlimited.
I do have a question for you, though. You seem pretty confident that a multiverse exists. What leads you to be so confident in that belief?
Hi Alexei—I love it!
I notice I felt happier just seeing the title, so on hedonic grounds you’ve succeeded already :-)
I’m scared to mention these two additional options, but perhaps they should be there for overall completeness in a brainstorm which isn’t immediately requiring proofs on any of the options, and in a post where “Happy minds” is mentioned as an objective:
1. None of these solutions seem highly plausible, so that means we are not too far away from philosophies and concepts about immortality that are historically (but not exclusively) linked to major religions. Cultivating an “immortal soul” and going on to an “afterlife” may be high risk, and thought ridiculous by many, but on the plus side it is at least attemptable, within a single lifetime. The buddhist concept of “clear light” and “rebirth” (rather than reincarnation as in Hinduism) might also be interesting, as it doesn’t rely on the concept of a soul. See also Shankara’s “nonduality”.
2. If we take a more reductionist / psychological approach and reduce the problem to …
… it might be worth considering despair work, distraction strategies, fear work, anti-depressants and other mind-altering strategies, so that these emotions become less problematic.
If someone suggested that these two strategies could also be psychological evasions, I’d have to agree, but maybe that applies to all of them?
The ultimate truth may turn out to be, “nothing works, and all life is doomed!” So perhaps we need ….
3. Acceptance therapy?
Interestingly, if no God exists, then all possible things should exist, and thus there is no end for our universe. To limit the number of actually existing things, we need some supernatural force, which allows only some worlds to exist, but which is not part of any of these worlds.
Just happened on this post while doing some research for a script I’m writing. I find it all so interesting. My education involves a lot of theology and this comment makes me think of the famous pendulum swings throughout theological history between pantheism and transcendentalism. Either God is in all things, or they are completely “above” all things and unknowable. The former is more akin to what you’re suggesting—that the things we experience are the infinite, as opposed to the latter which says we experience the limited compared to the unlimited.
I do have a question for you, though. You seem pretty confident that a multiverse exists. What leads you to be so confident in that belief?