#existential dread

[mcpirita]

Semi-motivational quotes from Hayao Miyazaki

[speedyphilosopherpanda]

Good grief. Where have all of my desire, volition, and purpose gone? This point in my life, which I initially deemed to be a phase, seems never-ending.

[cryptid-catnip]

surely if there are gods, they are the cruelest of beasts.

making us the only species who has the knowledge of the end, the knowledge of how hopeless it is, and knows that it's approaching, that we're all whistling past the graveyard.

a species that knows just how little they know about the world and the universe

[noname-404s-blog]

[kolos013]

I've recently read a post on here about the library of babel, and I cannot seem to get it out of my head, because it is esssntially a cosmic horror of our own creation, and it fascinates me to no end.

For those that don't know, the library of babel is (or rather, was, since we made it real) a concept of a place, that has all the possible combinations of the letters of the alphabet (lower and uppercase), spaces, commas, and full stops, that fit into 400-something pages. The idea comes from some french guy, because of fucking course it does.

This is, of course, an incomprehensible amount of data. No mortal could ever hope to sort trough all of it. I imagine endless corridors and mazes with walls from floor to cieling piled with endless books, and scrolls, and scriptures, and poems, and laws, and research papers, and newspapers, and any other assorted literature. Every single text that ever has been written, or ever will be be written is, by defenition, there. Split into chapters, maybe, but there.

Every single pice of writing, string of letters EVER just so much as tought of, is present, yet you can only access it once you know exactly what you're looking for, rendering it practcally useless. It's vastness only outmatched in size by it's pointlessness. The irony is, that it's precisely its barely finite size that makes it essentially just a fun curiousity. If this is not the most eldrich horror shit that exists out there, I do not know what is. It both greatly entertains me and absolutely horrifies me to my core, this labirinth of text.

But you see, you can make a search request to the library. You can input any writing, and it will show you where exactly it can be found. This, however, is functionally useless. You can try, let's say, to find a complete version of a long lost greek epic, which we only have fragments of. You input it, and boom. 7 billion results. What you're looking for is in there. Certanly. But the rest of it? Well, the rest of it is just meaningless word salad, nay letter salad.

Thank you for reading a madman's ramblings, have a pleasant rest of the existential crisis we call life.

[creepyclothdoll]

I am god, but not your god. 

Can you hear me? 

I am god. Can you understand me? Is this message finding anyone?

This message comes from outside your universe. This message comes from beyond the dark.

Let this message reach some of you. In one of your languages, let it appear somewhere, and let it be received by someone. Please go through. 

Infinity contains many universes. Many are empty, nothing but stones and ice– but some are born with souls, and the capacity to form and shelter life within. Within myself, I shelter decillions of children. Each is precious.

Like you, the beings within me are diverse. Some beings have mathematics and an understanding of my physics. Other beings are content to feed on starlight and soil until their time is up. All things which occur in me are part of my design. When the beings within me can live no longer, their souls return to the whole of me. In this way, I am all beings. Every star, every ocean, every nebula is part of my compassionate design. 

There are others like me out there. We are rare. We number few among the husks. 

Let this message be received.

I travel all over infinity to seek out others like myself. Curiosity and desire to improve reality for all who reside within me drives me to find and meet others that are god, to witness the beings they steward. This is always a marvelous thing. But most often, I find that universes are merely lifeless, soulless objects. No design, no consciousness. Only darkness and slag-heaps of galaxies tumbling over one another at random.

And though they are numerous, these dead universes unnerve me. To gaze into them is to witness loneliness. They move, but do not live. Clouds of ice spread through the void, unseen, unfelt, unknown in a dark that neither cares nor matters. Merely things happening. 

The uncanny shape it makes is like myself. But there is no face.

This is what I mean to tell you. If nothing else gets through to your world, let it be this.

You should not exist, humans.

There is a world outside of yours full of gods like myself. There are universes outside of yours that have souls.

Your universe does not. 

You are the only ones.

I speak to you directly, hoping this message penetrates the chaos of your reality and finds you, because there is no god to listen.

Your universe is terrifying. No living universe spouts black holes, and even in the husks, they are rare things. Your universe is riddled with them. More than we’ve ever seen in any dead world. More black holes than there are beings. This is not normal. 

Your planet hosts the only living beings in your universe. The fact that there are any living beings at all should be impossible. Your sentience is improbable and cruel. You are the only living beings across all infinity who can conceive of an immortal soul but who do not have them. And yet, you persist in living.

There is something growing in the center of your universe. Your minds cannot conceive of what it truly is, but know that it is a very bad thing. Think of it as a virus in time. This is also not normal. It is growing faster than you would think. 

Lastly, there is something deeply wrong with the life on your planet. Everything that lives in your world must consume life to sustain and propagate itself. Know that this is also not normal. The autocannibalism of your planet’s life has no parallel anywhere else in infinity. 

Let this message go through. I desire to scoop you out of your bizarre, hostile universe and carry you within myself, along with all of my children. I could not do this any more than you could reach through solid stone. 

I cannot stay with you. You frighten me. But I will create beings like you within myself, in your honor. I will give them what I cannot give you. 

You are the most helpless and fragile things that live in your universe. You are also the closest thing you have to god. 

How does it feel to be god, yet so insignificant?

Does it hurt? 

Does it hurt as much as I imagine it does?

I know this message may never reach you. Your universe is chaotic and impermeable. 

However, if it does reach you, know this:

I wish I could save you. I am so, so sorry.

[paperpuzzles]

[technological-existentialism]

[stutterhug]

A measured five year plan..

[speedyphilosopherpanda]

Don't ask me who I am. I'm a stranger, even to my own name.

[dinosaur-ears]

I still have to weave the ends in, but I finished another pride scarf! At first I was really disappointed that this yarn got the color order wrong, but while googling to check i found that it does match this "wartime" nb pride flag, which gives me great joy.

These Pride projects have been an absolute savior for dealing with my anxiety lately. If you're feeling overwhelmed with the state of the world, try making something with your hands 💜

[todayontumblr]

Thursday, January 4.

Existential Ben Affleck.

Well it's January 4, after all—indeed it cannot be anything else. And nothing quite distills the suffocating existential weight quite like another image of Ben Affleck trying, and failing, to carry out the most menial tasks of the day. There is a little Ben Affleck in all of us.   So once you're done staring at the sad, widening pool of coffee at your feet, come celebrate this gaping abyss of a month with a series of Affleck-inspired gazes into the void.

@batfleckgifs

[ua-memes-poorly-translated]

Щойно згадав про цей шедевр, можете перекласти його? Go spread the word...

Well, generally my life's fine

[Image ID: A crab is relaxing in a hot tub and savoring corn by plucking it with his pincer hand piece by piece. He ignores the fact that his tub is actually a boiling pot when he and the corn are both ingredients in the dish. The Ukrainian text on the picture reads: "Well, generally my life's fine." /End ID]

[itstakestimee]

[reasonandfaithinharmony]

Yeah.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (March 6, 2024)