458
Matter matters (thelemmy.club)
submitted 3 days ago by url@feddit.fr to c/comicstrips@lemmy.world

Feom saturday morning breakfast cereal https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/meaning-8

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[-] quips@slrpnk.net 9 points 2 days ago

I am extremely grateful nothing cosmically matters. It means nothing matters more than the things that matter to us.

Could you imagine if your life was dictated by some external purpose that you were forced into? If you couldn’t give this life and this world your own meaning? It would be horrible.

[-] SystemDisc@feddit.org 27 points 3 days ago

I’m pro optimistic nihilism. Nothing has any inherent meaning, so I have the privilege of assigning my own meaning to things.

[-] icanbrewmushrooms@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

This is called existentialism.

[-] village604@adultswim.fan 4 points 2 days ago

Kinda similar to my epiphany during the comedown from a bad shroom trip.

There is no meaning to life, but there doesn't need to be one to enjoy it.

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

And infact any external meaning might hamper our enjoyment of this life

[-] Zink@programming.dev 4 points 3 days ago

100% this, my friend.

And if more people could get their heads to that healthy state, the world would be a better place.

[-] affenlehrer@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago
[-] 46_and_2@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Anyway, how's your sex life?

[-] affenlehrer@feddit.org 3 points 2 days ago

I did not hit her, it's bullshit! I did naaaaht! Oh, hi 46_and_2!

[-] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

All you need is love, love

Love is all you need

[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

I quit my nihilistic group when I came to this conclusion and desynched with the vibes. So many doomers get stuck in a masturbatory loop of questioning and fretting, and basically waiting for a new daddy to show up and provide top-down meaning.

But there are no daddies, not really. Only zaddies, and you get to pick yours.

[-] tormeh@discuss.tchncs.de 31 points 3 days ago

The concept of meaning is ill-defined. It's basically a feeling, and there's nothing more to it.

[-] Quicky@piefed.social 4 points 3 days ago
[-] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 days ago

What do you mean by "mean"?

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

Hard disagree, things can be incredibly meaningful without any feelings attached.

[-] rockerface@lemmy.cafe 24 points 3 days ago

The universe might not care, but we do, and that's the important part in my book

[-] banazir@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 days ago

We're part of the universe and we care, therefore the universe cares through us.

"We are the universe made manifest, trying to figure itself out." -Delenn

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

Thats not quite what they mean.

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago

Thank God the universe doesn’t care. I don’t want it telling me what to do.

[-] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 2 points 2 days ago

Meaning only matters to minds, so it makes sense that minds is where meaning comes from.

[-] KindnessIsPunk@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

All meaning is defined from within, the fact that there's no one keeping score is what makes it matter.

If you need a diety or the concept of karmic balance in order to do what you know to be right then I'm not sure you really believe in it.

[-] xylol@leminal.space 2 points 3 days ago

I was surprised a old coworker went to church one time he mentioned it as he seemed like not the type.

I asked him why he goes and he told me he would probably kill someone if he didn't go to church and learn what was right or wrong and it was super weird to me that some people have like no morales/empathy built in

[-] the_artic_one@piefed.social 10 points 2 days ago
[-] tmyakal@infosec.pub 11 points 3 days ago

This reminds me of my own thoughts on the peak year of cinema: 1999. We got:

  • the Matrix
  • American Beauty
  • Office Space
  • Fight Club
  • Being John Malkovich

The inciting incident to all of these movies is basically, "I'm a bored white guy feeling existential dread." They're all great films, but if late-90s cinema is any indication, a huge swathe of Americans had virtually no problems back then.

Or to put it another way: as of 2000, Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over

[-] Naz@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

1998-1999 had historically low oil prices and pretty fantastic economic prosperity. Not as good as the post-war recovery period, but shit was looking up in a hurry.

One of the best times to be alive

[-] WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 5 points 2 days ago

Never seen a comic phrase something I thought only I believe in, better than I ever could. Oh my gods...

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

And can we not consider that each of us can so arrange his own particular life so as to make it meaningful to himself and to those he influences? And in that case does not all of life and all the Universe come to have meaning to him?

Surely it is those who find their own lives essentially meaningless who most strive to impose meaning on the Universe as a way of making up for the personal lack.

--Isaac Asimov, Knock Plastic!, 1989

It turns out that finding out there wasn't any meaning in the world meant a lot to some people.

[-] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 3 days ago

Look at a starry sky, see how many stars there are. Each one is a nearly unimaginable number of times larger than the planet you live on. Each one may potentially carry an entire history of civilizations far beyond what humans may ever achieve.

You feel irrelevant? Each star is all of that and yet if you raise your hand to the sky you can completely cover several of them from your point of view. That's how big you are.

[-] banazir@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

"The stars are matter, we're matter, but it doesn't matter."

[-] MajinBlayze@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

Catching strays over here

[-] bequirtle@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I would think that believing things matter is much more uncomfortable than believing they don't

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

Matches my thoughts on the whole "what if this is all just a simulation?" thing too. Until that has some tangible effect on us, or we find a way out, so what?

And free will. We feel like we have it. That's all that really matters as far as that debate goes unless you're the kind of jackass trying to rob someone of their accomplishment or absolve yourself of terrible behavior.

[-] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago

We might not even exist - we could be a simulation or even just the imagination of some higher plane being. The absolute only thing that we can be completely sure of is that something is real somewhere, at some level.

[-] Sunshine@reddthat.com 1 points 22 hours ago

I feel like I exist, but maybe all my Sims felt the same way. When it comes down to it who cares if we are just a program? Some shitty ass rpg where the hero is definitely losing?

[-] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

Same sort of thing. Sure, my entire existence could be the product of a delusion of some higher order being merely keeping the results of my senses consistent with what I consider "real life". All my previous experiences could be complete fabrications done convincingly enough, including previous musings on this.

So fucking what?

Until any of that becomes provable or has direct impact on the experience I have as "real life", it's nothing more than extremely boring navel gazing.

Non-falsifiable philosophical wankery dead-ends and a waste of energy to seriously consider. Better ways to spend what I pErCeIvE as time.

[-] merde@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

The absolute only thing that we can be completely sure of is that something is real somewhere, at some level.

is that a joke?

[-] Hudell@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

Not really, why?

[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

There is no ultimate purpose in a cosmic sense.
We can define one if we want to, but it will always be subjective to our own opinions.

Maybe we are an effort of the Universe to save itself from its ultimate fate that it is dying a slow heat death or ending in the terminal maximum entropy?

The intelligence of life can be determined as its ability to sustain itself. In the same way the intelligence of the universe can be determined as its ability to sustain itself.

IDK, maybe in billions of years some life form will be able to save the universe?

[-] quips@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago

Why would that be if in this very second an infinite multitude of new universes are being created each moment, many of which will eventually develop life?

[-] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 days ago

Fermions matter

this post was submitted on 29 May 2026
458 points (97.9% liked)

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