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Comment by schintan | Hacker News Reader

The further I read, the smaller I feel.

The Total Perspective Vortex is allegedly the most horrible torture device to which a sentient being can be subjected.

When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it there's a tiny little speck, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhiker%2...

I dunno man. I'm already quite aware of how insignificant I am on a cosmic scale. So it would be interesting to gain a proper sense of scale of the ridiculous vastness of space.

I recommend watching the Numberphile Video on Grahams Number.

I think once you start to grasp how truly unimaginable large this number is, you get a comparable feeling to how the cosmic scale compares to us in an emotional way.

I've seen that one, it's really good :-)

It's pretty great if you're Zaphod Beeblebrox, though, since then it just confirms that the entire universe centers on you.

Well in that specific case the universe was actually centered around Beeblebrox since he was in the boss office who was on a cruise vacation. In his office.

The further I read, the smaller some of the issues we face today seem. I could spend my life fighting to prevent global warming or fix the world, but this list just makes me want to enjoy the time I have here with my loved ones... I don't know how I feel about these feelings.

> According to Berger and Loutre, the current interglacial period ends[14] sending the Earth back into a glacial period of the current ice age, regardless of the effects of anthropogenic global warming.

According to that guy, there will be a new ice age in 50k years regardless of the current global warming being stopped or not.

Climate change? Sounds like a problem for patient man!

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/the-superhero-we-need

If there are industrial humans then, it wouldn’t be hard to engineer supergreenhouse gases to mitigate that.

You mean, it doesnt make you want to get into an inconsequential political argument with someone on Twitter?

It's truly a shame that more people don't realize how much better you can feel about life and humanity when you stop getting drawn into arguments on social media.

Maybe try to make room for both? Life can have purpose without consisting solely of it.

They are even connected. Making the world incrementally better now will impact the lives that your loved ones and their loved ones are able to lead.

I agree, I guess I'm just expressing my feeling as I read this list. It is about balance, and I do my best, but thanks for reminding me of the connection between the two.

Well, if you take the long view then the earth will be consumed by the expanding sun and the entire history of everything on it will be erased as if it never existed. So nothing any human has done or likely will do matters. Hitler is as insignificant as gandhi.

But ... there are many lifetimes between now and then, and the quality of those lifetimes (at least the earliest ones) is something we can have an influence on, so what we do matters a lot.

So, really, it boils down to what scale you choose to measure the consequences of your actions by.

Well... the odd thing about humans is we actually can do things about the events here, at least in the beginning of the timeline. Not us, but our descendants formed and molded by us today, just as you and I are the direct descendants of some microscopic organisms, actually a continuous living organism alive since life first sprung on Earth. Things like moving the Earth, moving to other Star Systems and galaxies, and more exotic ideas like engineering the course of the cosmos itself. You and your loved ones are part of that.

The "Humanity" section has left me with a deep chill. I've already been in an existential mood the nature of life in the modern age, and now I've got the end of humanity to think about too...

I won't even click, I'm not sure I'll end up depressed.

I think it's worth a peek.

I think it's uplifting to know how much more there is than what goes on around these parts.

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