sometimes the best way to get yourself out of a weird existential crisis is to ask “what does this change about the way I experience reality right now” bcs if the answer is “nothing” you don’t gotta worry about it
this post brought to you by me pissing off my philosopher brother by answering all of his “but what if we do live in a simulation??” prompts with “what would that meaningfully change about how I experience reality?” and the “well what if they turn the PC off?” okay what if you die right now in some freak accident??? if you wanna scare yourself with weird existential what-ifs be my guest but I don’t see a point about worrying if the theory again, changes nothing at all meaningful about how we expirience reality!
if they turn the PC off, then we’ve got a better chance of surviving than if something “turns off” the real world. humans that get destroyed in some planetary catastrophe don’t come back.
programs in a computer that got turned off, they do come back when you turn it back on. happier and well-rested. that is the better possibility.
my existential fear is, “what if this isn’t a simulation, or a world with a magical afterlife, and we only get one life and then it’s over”
and the only way that possibility changes my current actions, is that it makes me a nicer person.
because if this is the only life, then we gotta try our best to make it as long and happy for everyone as possible
and yes, the limitations of how much we can do that– the helplessness of it sometimes– can be a source of stress for me. and I do think the only way I’ve become more okay with that, is desensitization over time.
because “worrying doesn’t help” doesn’t turn off worrying, any more than “pain doesn’t help” turns off pain.
and “you can’t change it and nothing you can do with this fear will improve the problem” was never a calming thought to me, just one that made me feel more helpless and terrified.
But… time wears down fears.
and sometimes that’s all we can hope for.
I’m old and fearless now, so (to quote another program trapped in a computer) the Users better be there when I bust out.
Or not. And in that case it won’t matter to me anyway.