This is precisely what South African philosopher David Benatar proposes in his book “Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence”. I’ve always been an anti-Malthusian, but I admit I;m intrigued by the extreme utilitarian approach to human suffering explored by Benatar. As far as I know, Benatar is perfectly happy with his life as a nihilistic philosopher.
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Did you go to the philosophy college?
I read Law, and much later sociology. But I’ve always read heaps of philosophy. And you?
One of my favorite Sci Fi stories has humans getting resurrected after the world explodes to populate a planetary system to act as bait for an alien battle. Thing was that humans became extinct and this order of Lizards achieved technology.
I think there’s this hypothesis. The Gaia where the Earth will survive after us and other species will develop. It’s just time but very interesting!
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Good enough.
What can you tell me about nihilism an how it effects a person?
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My sources are too anecdotal to really matter and the meaning of nihilism is far from fully agreed on. If we take the more pessimistic stance, there are a handful of cases where a correlation between stated nihilism and certain life choices takes place, most famously a well known French philospher’s decision to end his own life. However, nihilism also has a more positive dimension of working as midwife of historical change. Ultimately, for most self-styled nihilists nihilism serves as a pet theory more than for anything else.
I follow the philosopher who said, “The purpose of life is to serve humanity”. Not so much for what life is, as what it can be. We can conquer sickness, injury, hunger and pain through our intelligence. I think there is a purpose behind intelligent life. I sometimes wonder if some kind of super intelligent civilization has gone through the universe seeding likely planets with the ingredients of life. Maybe they’re watching us now to see if we’re worth keeping alive. Maybe they’re watching us to serve if we can be trusted with the power of technology. I guess that’s kind of esoteric. Just a thought.
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