When you take the limit
And the limit is infinite
And the limit is infinite
We diminish
To nothing we finish
When perception is reality
And forever we perceive nothing
We never existed
We never existed
-Lyrics from a song I wrote in January 2017, "From the Void"
Scenario 1: You never come into being. An infinite amount of time passes where you have no subjectivity.
Scenario 2: You come into being and then eventually die, and you stay dead forever. An infinite amount of time passes where you have no subjectivity.
In both cases "you" spend an infinite amount of time with no subjectivity. If we made a pie chart showing the percentage of time spent with subjectivity and without, both charts would look identical.
So, there is no real difference between Scenario 1 and 2.
If there is no real difference between Scenario 1 and 2, then nothing matters.
So, nothing matters.
Response: It's true that as time approaches infinity, the finite time spent alive approaches zero. But zero is a limit, never truly reached. So the time spent alive is never actually zero.
More importantly, while we are alive, we are certain that we have experiences; we are certain that we are existing and thus certain that we will have existed. So not only is it false that there is no difference between Scenario 1 and 2, it's certainly false.
The real moments of real flourishing (or suffering) that real people really have—that's the difference, and just as we are certain of those moments, we are certain of that difference. So not only is 'nothing matters' false, it's false with certainty.
No comments:
Post a Comment