To cope and take comfort from the fact everything is pointless and in 100 years we’ll be dust

I enjoy this kind of fact, too. If a T-Rex looked up at the night sky, it did NOT see the same sky that we see - because the solar system was on the other side of the galaxy! One galactic rotation takes 230 million years, our system's been round it 19 times so far.

I think people go one of two ways: some, like me, find it comforting to know we are tiny, ephemeral parts of something majestically vast. The other lot find it terrifying and need to believe they're ... significant, maybe?

Yeah but you won't know anything about that

I don't know what that means...so...probably not

So you're saying the universe knows itself through us.

Consciousness is just atoms bouncing around in our brains. When I die, and my body breaks down eventually it may be taken up into a plant and turned in to leaf matter, that is eaten by a person and the same atoms will end up bouncing around in someone elses consciousness.

I mean yes in a sense we're all just distracting ourselves from death, filling our days with tasks that are ultimately meaningless right? But in another sense everything we do impacts people around us; we have the power to make someone's day a bit better or a bit worse. I always tell myself that every day is new, even if I feel shit today, I won't feel the same tomorrow and the world keeps turning.

I agree I think we find the idea of time really hard to comprehend. Some of my favourite facts are things like more of the earths history passed between when the stegosaurus and when the T-Rex walked the earth, than has passed between the T-Rex and us. .

But none of that means anything without consciousness? It's just dead matter.

Completely true. Whatever the expectations of you, it's all essentially a bit bullshit and nothing materially changes much (at least not in a meaningful timeframe).

I don't think we don't exist, our atoms will change and spread, some of them may be soil for a bit, some may be taken up into trees and become plants. We get intermixed and interspersed in the great circle of life. Our components will last for ever. If you're breathed in cardon dioxide from burning oil you breathing in atoms, and incorporating into your body components that used to be dinosaurs.

The only thing you can experience is your existence so for you your lifetime may as well be the whole existence of the universe.

I believe we are pretty inconsequential. We have one of billions of stars in our galaxy, which is one of billions of galaxies the universe, I think there then billions of universes in the "multiverse" or what ever its called. The only explanation I can think for why the big band theory makes sense is if that big bang is a small bang in something much bigger, there may be billions of "multi" verses in what ever comes next.

But it'll happen anyway. Are you saying we should all be terrified about the prospect of non-existence for the rest of eternity instead?

Or Stoicism. I love a bit of stoicism (or a lot).

https://dailystoic.com/memento-mori/

People are confusing concepts in this thread. Understanding that there is no meaning or higher purpose to life is not the same as believing nothing matters. Obviously the things we do have consequences - it's not nihilistic to recognise that in the long run they become inconsequential.

I believe in heaven so it would give me no comfort to think we just turn to dust.

I'm nothing but a dot now😁

I get what you're saying op but with that attitude you could justify doing some terrible things.
"It doesn't matter that I murdered 10 people cos in 100 years we'll all be dead anyway!"

I will worry about stuff because I want to enjoy life and not suffer too much because if you're suffering it does matter to you even if it's not for that long in the grand scheme of the infinite universe.

But there are certainly things we don't need to worry about that stressful jobs create.

Nope, YANBU. In fact, I think the same right now. Therapists often ask people who have worries to reflect on the bigger picture: ‘will this matter a month from now? A year from now? In ten years?’ I think you’re doing a version of that!

That's only a 'nice thought' if you're seriously depressed and pessimistic.

Thanks.. I’m you’re age.. and needed that today.. not!

this thread makes me think about my ancestors from 100 years ago - would they have imagined that I might exist in 2025 and what my life might be like? My great grandmother was born in the mid 1890s and I remember her well, but what about her mother who must have been born in about 1870, 110 years before me? I wonder what she would have imagined about me. And in turn I wonder what a female descendent of mine (though I only have sons so the female line dies with me!) might be like in 2135? Will she be living in a house like mine? Will her kids be driving her nuts?? Will she have emigrated or found a cure for cancer or…?

It's a nice thought knowing in 100 years life will be over and done with. The only thing is having to go through death to get there. I honestly wish I hadn't had to bother with life in the first place, but then it wasn't my choice.

Legacy? Are you royalty?

Erm...and sanitation

And...education

Oh and the aqueduct

And...roads

😉😁