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Comment by forgotmypw17 | Hacker News Reader

Every moment of our existence brings about a certain amount of suffering, and a certain amount of joy.

Depending on our choices and intentions, the amounts of joy and suffering for both us and other viewpoints varies.

I believe that Universe is continuously solving for the maximum sum amount of joy from all the viewpoints combined.

Of course, a certain amount of suffering is required to bring about the joy, whether by providing a comparison, or by carving our abilities and motivations.

When I set my intentions for maximum joy and follow through on them, the Universe "likes" and "assists" this in amazing and miraculous ways, which bring about even more joy, and so on.

We are truly fortunate to exist in a Universe which is set up this way.

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You seem to be espousing tenants similar to 'The Secret'. Which if that's what you believe, more power to you; each to their own. I tend to think the opposite though, I think the universe tends towards death, and suffering. In the absence of concerted effort death and suffering is the result. Only through hard work and effort is the chance for happiness attained. Although I guess my ideas also seem to espouse 'The Secret', just focused on a different view point.

Your position is basically that of Camus' absurdism, if you wanted to dig further into the philosophy.

Thank you, I will check it out

Have you heard that there is no objective reality, that each of us is living their own subjective experience, a reflection of our own mental models?

Universe solving for the maximum sum amount of joy?

Universe is setup such that many things will form, then ultimately be annihilated.

suffering is such that it can instantly end joy. Joy has to do a lot of work to end suffering.

Entropy generally brings about suffering, joy requires a lot of energy to create situations that relieve / protect from suffering temporarily. So the universe seems more optimized for suffering. The universe itself is indifferent.

In my opinion, the abundance of darkness is what makes the light so special and joyful.

The spider thinks things are going great up until the shoe comes down and crushes him.

The universe is old and huge on a human time scale. But (and I'm making up the numbers for effect) 99.999999% of the universe is devoid of joy and should you find yourself in other than that 0.000001% of the life-friendly places, you will be snuffed out without concern. As for the time scale, it is estimated it will take 10E100 years for all the black holes to eventually evaporate, leading to the final heat death of the universe. Life will have a home anywhere in the universe for an exceedingly small fraction of that time.

I'm wondering whether there is a metaphysical law of conservation of valence - where positive qualia have to be balanced by negative ones in some way

> When I set my intentions for maximum joy and follow through on them, the Universe "likes" and "assists" this in amazing and miraculous ways, which bring about even more joy, and so on.

> I believe that Universe is continuously solving for the maximum sum amount of joy from all the viewpoints combined.

This is easy to believe when your brain is flooded with serotonin, but i don't think it's universally true

I once sketched a story in which God is frantically working to reorder the possible configurations of the universe, so that no consciousness experiences too much torture or terror in a single timeline. And (maybe) He needs the Crucifixion as some kind of torture-sink to make it feasible.

I never actually wrote it because I couldn’t get it past my bar for logical coherence. I’d be so prolific if I had a practical writer’s tolerance for plot holes.

I think it is easy to form a bleak picture of the world when one is feeling bleak themselves.

You are of course correct that there is no universal truth, and each of us is living their own reality.

But it is not a secret that Nature Is Trying To Kill Us!

I'm imagining The Universe™ sitting in front of a crusty old interdimensional space laptop, thumbs-upping your actions in the ol' Fatebook once in a while. Probably The Universe™ ran out of space cats and you were the next best thing. What a fortunate turn of events.

Being more entertaining than a space cat is a high bar to reach for, but I do my best to entertain. )

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