So I had an idea about a possible alternative to the popular notion of eternal life. Emerging scientific theories involve the plausibility of a multiverse (or omniverse) consisting of potentially infinite universes, or at least a great many number of them. Whether or not the evidence will end up panning out one or more of these theories is a different topic because, for the sake of this discussion, I think it suffices to say there's at least enough, if not more reason, to endorse an infinite universes theory over an eternal life hypothesis.
According to some of these theories, there could be an infinite number of "yous" existing in an infinite number of universe. You would essentially have an infinite number of lives. This presents itself to me as a sort of video game version of reality in which the aim is to play your life to its fullest even at the risk of losing it. It would only be the end of this particular stream of consciousness anyway while an infinite, or great many more, number of other streams are playing themselves out as well. Admittedly, this requires a certain loosening on our sense of "ego" but I find the "ego" tends to be mostly illusory anyway.
You feel bad about your day? Well, at least you made it this far on this life when in many universes you were never even born or never even survived your childhood. I'd say you're doing a pretty decent job with this life having made it this far. Even if you do lose this life, you have many more other lives playing themselves out in parallel universes. Perhaps in some you may end up reaching a technological checkpoint in which immortality is hypothetically possible anyway. So live life to the fullest even at the risk of losing it because you're never going to make it to the next level if your not willing to risk a life or two in the process.
You should play life as if it were a grand game. To some, this may seem to imply a haphazard amoral stance on things. I don't believe this is necessarily the case because many people find it to be incredibly fun to play the role of hero. Sure, some may prefer to play villain, but without them it wouldn't be much of a game at all. Besides we're probably all villains and heroes in different parallel universes. If we learned to not take life so darn seriously all the time we might not take our roles so seriously, resulting in less extremist behavior all around. Furthermore, the possibility of parallel universes really sinks the core of some exclusive religious traditions. I mean, although you may be Christian or Muslim or what-have-you in this version you're probably a Satanist or Atheist or whatever you consider to be your opposite in a different cosmic version of yourself, but I digress.
The idea of infinite lives opens up the potential of not taking ourselves so seriously all the time and learning to enjoy playing the game of life rather than trying to dominate it and dictate all the rules. It opens our imaginations to all the potential and probabilities of how our lives could have played out and what might still be possible in this particular stream of consciousness. So this is my video game theory of life. I find it to be quite comforting and liberating in its own way. I haven't quite thought it out entirely, but what does everybody else think?
According to some of these theories, there could be an infinite number of "yous" existing in an infinite number of universe. You would essentially have an infinite number of lives. This presents itself to me as a sort of video game version of reality in which the aim is to play your life to its fullest even at the risk of losing it. It would only be the end of this particular stream of consciousness anyway while an infinite, or great many more, number of other streams are playing themselves out as well. Admittedly, this requires a certain loosening on our sense of "ego" but I find the "ego" tends to be mostly illusory anyway.
You feel bad about your day? Well, at least you made it this far on this life when in many universes you were never even born or never even survived your childhood. I'd say you're doing a pretty decent job with this life having made it this far. Even if you do lose this life, you have many more other lives playing themselves out in parallel universes. Perhaps in some you may end up reaching a technological checkpoint in which immortality is hypothetically possible anyway. So live life to the fullest even at the risk of losing it because you're never going to make it to the next level if your not willing to risk a life or two in the process.
You should play life as if it were a grand game. To some, this may seem to imply a haphazard amoral stance on things. I don't believe this is necessarily the case because many people find it to be incredibly fun to play the role of hero. Sure, some may prefer to play villain, but without them it wouldn't be much of a game at all. Besides we're probably all villains and heroes in different parallel universes. If we learned to not take life so darn seriously all the time we might not take our roles so seriously, resulting in less extremist behavior all around. Furthermore, the possibility of parallel universes really sinks the core of some exclusive religious traditions. I mean, although you may be Christian or Muslim or what-have-you in this version you're probably a Satanist or Atheist or whatever you consider to be your opposite in a different cosmic version of yourself, but I digress.
The idea of infinite lives opens up the potential of not taking ourselves so seriously all the time and learning to enjoy playing the game of life rather than trying to dominate it and dictate all the rules. It opens our imaginations to all the potential and probabilities of how our lives could have played out and what might still be possible in this particular stream of consciousness. So this is my video game theory of life. I find it to be quite comforting and liberating in its own way. I haven't quite thought it out entirely, but what does everybody else think?
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