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**haloreach4ever**

This might be a little random but this morning i contemplated the enormity of the universe and how brutally insignificant i am (a invisible pin prick on the face of reality). Also how my life has the opportunity to both fail and prosper. About how little we know about our deep inner reason to exist in this universe of uncertainty. About how i only escape the crushing weight of everything slowly grinding down on me by the distraction of halo on-line multi-player. I seem incapable of focus when i have all these questions that even the greatest minds cannot understand. All this leads to me having a very pessimistic view of life and i just wondered if any one knew how to ease the flow of questions raking my brain

**Corpsesarefun**

Congratulations, you just lost your innocence.

**SilverMK2**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existentialism

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

Imagine feeling that way and really wanting brownies. You're now effectively high

**ShumaGorath**

haloreach4ever wrote:This might be a little random but this morning i contemplated the enormity of the universe and how brutally insignificant i am (a invisible pin prick on the face of reality). Also how my life has the opportunity to both fail and prosper. About how little we know about our deep inner reason to exist in this universe of uncertainty. About how i only escape the crushing weight of everything slowly grinding down on me by the distraction of halo on-line multi-player. I seem incapable of focus when i have all these questions that even the greatest minds cannot understand. All this leads to me having a very pessimistic view of life and i just wondered if any one knew how to ease the flow of questions raking my brain

It gets even worse when you consider that you're going to occupy maybe 70 years of space out of billions. This is in addition to how insignificant that occupation is. It's both spatial and temporal.

**vitki**

haloreach4ever wrote: i just wondered if any one knew how to ease the flow of questions raking my brain

Vodka or whiskey usually does the trick for me...

**Skylifter**

Look at it this way: you are insignificant to the universe, but you are able to change your world. You can make any decisions you like, in order to further your own happiness.

And because you are insignificant compared to the universe, furthering your own happiness is the only goal worth aiming to, since you will not make much difference in anything else anyway.

In other words: your life and the world you live in is like a giant playground only for you and whoever you invite. Enjoy!

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

vitki wrote:
haloreach4ever wrote: i just wondered if any one knew how to ease the flow of questions raking my brain

Vodka or whiskey usually does the trick for me...

That or meds if the brain doesn't slow down ever

I had my stint on them and it was either them or beer. Constantly.

**sebster**

Yeah, we're insignificant, but that isn't so bad. Imagine if you were responsible for incredibly important job, like keeping keeping the planets in orbit - that'd be a crushing amount of pressure. Imagine how guilty you'd feel blowing that job off to play Halo.

So just accept that it's pretty likely you won't play some crucial role in history, and try to live as good and happy a life as you can.

**Corpsesarefun**

The two responses to this realization are always quite interesting; people either reject the idea that they will play no major role in history and make it their goal to change the world (most of your major historical figures are here) or they accept it and just live their lives to the full (most other people end up here).

Which category do you fall in?

**halonachos**

haloreach4ever wrote:This might be a little random but this morning i contemplated the enormity of the universe and how brutally insignificant i am (a invisible pin prick on the face of reality). Also how my life has the opportunity to both fail and prosper. About how little we know about our deep inner reason to exist in this universe of uncertainty. About how i only escape the crushing weight of everything slowly grinding down on me by the distraction of halo on-line multi-player. I seem incapable of focus when i have all these questions that even the greatest minds cannot understand. All this leads to me having a very pessimistic view of life and i just wondered if any one knew how to ease the flow of questions raking my brain

Congratulations, you just beat puberty.

**The Dreadnote**

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Imagine feeling that way and really wanting brownies.

Dangerous to say you want brownies

better to opt for Brown Owl

**halonachos**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:
Imagine feeling that way and really wanting brownies.

Dangerous to say you want brownies

better to opt for Brown Owl

Just ask for taquitos, no suspects the spanish snacks.

**LordofHats**

haloreach4ever wrote:This might be a little random but this morning i contemplated the enormity of the universe and how brutally insignificant i am (a invisible pin prick on the face of reality). Also how my life has the opportunity to both fail and prosper. About how little we know about our deep inner reason to exist in this universe of uncertainty. About how i only escape the crushing weight of everything slowly grinding down on me by the distraction of halo on-line multi-player. I seem incapable of focus when i have all these questions that even the greatest minds cannot understand. All this leads to me having a very pessimistic view of life and i just wondered if any one knew how to ease the flow of questions raking my brain

This happens to me every now and then. Usually I just say "

you universe." And life goes on

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

@caf:I do a half-assed attempt at the former, though I haven't given up hope yet

In a few months I should be back on track and you should all be worshiping me at some point or another.

@Chibi: I have no idea what Brown Owl is

And I've had "special" cake before, and attempted to use said special cake to satisfy my munchies. It never ends well, or conscious at least

**SlaveToDorkness**

One or the other usually works. Or all four!!!

**Corpsesarefun**

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:@caf:I do a half-assed attempt at the former, though I haven't given up hope yet In a few months I should be back on track and you should all be worshiping me at some point or another.

@Chibi: I have no idea what Brown Owl is And I've had "special" cake before, and attempted to use said special cake to satisfy my munchies. It never ends well, or conscious at least

Excellent

**FITZZ**

SlaveToDorkness wrote:

One or the other usually works. Or all four!!!

Throw in one of these...and all the "existential" problems go right out the window.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Honestly what are you like

Brown Owl is centre back row.
And lets face it she looks like a centre back, but at least she is legal and you won't get in trouble with the Feds.

**FITZZ**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Honestly what are you like

Brown Owl is centre back row.
And lets face it she looks like a centre back, but at least she is legal and you won't get in trouble with the Feds.

I get the feeling you may have just confused a great many people Chibi.

**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

Wait, so a Brown Owl is the equivalent of a Girl Scout Den Mother?

**Gorskar.da.Lost**

Do what I always do in these circumstances:
"I'm insignificant to the Universe? Fine, then, that

's insignificant to me!"

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

the wonders of the internet.
Never heard the term Girl Scout Den Mother before now

That would be correct Cannerus.

**Corpsesarefun**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:the wonders of the internet.
Never heard the term Girl Scout Den Mother before now

That would be correct Cannerus.

I'm English and was in the scouts yet I have never heard the term brown owl used before

**Ahtman**

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

- Carl Sagan

**AresX8**

Ahtman wrote:We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

- Carl Sagan

This deserves every single plug that every man can do on the internets and then some: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M&feature=related

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Total Perspective Vortex

The Total Perspective Vortex is allegedly the most horrible torture device to which a sentient being can be subjected.

When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."[5]
Located on Frogstar World B, the machine was originally invented by one Trin Tragula in order to annoy his wife. Because she was forever nagging him for having no sense of proportion, he decided to invent something that would show her what having a sense of proportion really meant. Unfortunately the shock of being placed in the Vortex destroyed her brain, but Trin Tragula's grief was tempered by the knowledge that he had been right and she had been wrong. In Adams's words, the Total Perspective Vortex illustrated that "In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion."[6]

The machine produces a virtual reality model of the entire universe by means of the axiom that any piece of matter is affected by all other matter. The Vortex reconstructs the universe through computer processing of a high-resolution scan ("extrapolated matter analysis") of a piece of fairy cake. In the words of the Hitchhiker's Guide,

...since every piece of matter in the Universe is in someway affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation - every Galaxy, every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition, and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.[7]
Only Zaphod Beeblebrox is reported to have survived the Vortex unscathed (and then to have eaten the small piece of fairy cake). When it showed him the "You Are Here" marker, Zaphod correctly interpreted the Vortex as simply telling him that he was the most important being in the universe. This is due to the fact that he entered the Vortex in an artificial universe, which had been specially created for his benefit (thus making him the most important being in it) by Zarniwoop. After emerging from the artificial universe's Total Perspective Vortex, Zaphod ate the piece of fairy cake, saying "If I told you how much I needed this, I wouldn't have time to eat it."

Wki on the Total Perspective Vortex. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Girl Guide to the Galaxy

**Jihadnik**

I reckon skylifter said it best...alternatively, go and find something insignificant compared to you, and completely dominate its existence!

Go flick an ant, crush a feather or snap off a twig from a tree and burn it. That's the human way!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:
Total Perspective Vortex

The Total Perspective Vortex is allegedly the most horrible torture device to which a sentient being can be subjected.

When you are put into the Vortex you are given just one momentary glimpse of the entire unimaginable infinity of creation, and somewhere in it a tiny little mark, a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot, which says, "You are here."[5]
Located on Frogstar World B, the machine was originally invented by one Trin Tragula in order to annoy his wife. Because she was forever nagging him for having no sense of proportion, he decided to invent something that would show her what having a sense of proportion really meant. Unfortunately the shock of being placed in the Vortex destroyed her brain, but Trin Tragula's grief was tempered by the knowledge that he had been right and she had been wrong. In Adams's words, the Total Perspective Vortex illustrated that "In an infinite universe, the one thing sentient life cannot afford to have is a sense of proportion."[6]

The machine produces a virtual reality model of the entire universe by means of the axiom that any piece of matter is affected by all other matter. The Vortex reconstructs the universe through computer processing of a high-resolution scan ("extrapolated matter analysis") of a piece of fairy cake. In the words of the Hitchhiker's Guide,

...since every piece of matter in the Universe is in someway affected by every other piece of matter in the Universe, it is in theory possible to extrapolate the whole of creation - every Galaxy, every sun, every planet, their orbits, their composition, and their economic and social history from, say, one small piece of fairy cake.[7]
Only Zaphod Beeblebrox is reported to have survived the Vortex unscathed (and then to have eaten the small piece of fairy cake). When it showed him the "You Are Here" marker, Zaphod correctly interpreted the Vortex as simply telling him that he was the most important being in the universe. This is due to the fact that he entered the Vortex in an artificial universe, which had been specially created for his benefit (thus making him the most important being in it) by Zarniwoop. After emerging from the artificial universe's Total Perspective Vortex, Zaphod ate the piece of fairy cake, saying "If I told you how much I needed this, I wouldn't have time to eat it."

Wki on the Total Perspective Vortex. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Girl Guide to the Galaxy

Ba haha! I'm going to buy some milk, drink it, and read that again so I can snort it out laughing!

Good call!

**daedalus**

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:
That or meds if the brain doesn't slow down ever I had my stint on them and it was either them or beer. Constantly.

I gotta say, Vicodin and beer goes far toward keeping the thoughts moving at a pace that makes sense.

Seriously though, you think things are bad now, just wait until you have taxes and rent.

I think there are two solutions to your dilemma:

1. Life is meaningless, we have no purpose, and were a (to put it blunt) tragic mistake; a freak accident, thus since it matters for naught, we might as well enjoy ourselves to our fullest extent and not sweat it.

2. Life is completely and utterly important. Every last bit of it. You're here to serve some higher purpose that is beyond your comprehension. However, since the universe is depending upon you to fulfill your purpose to your fullest extent, such that you were CREATED to serve that purpose, then you're going to either unerringly (if unintentionally) find and serve that purpose, or, should the universe be so flawed such as to create people that can not properly fulfill the point to their being, at the very least not contribute to a flawed form of existence.

Believing in this dichotomy is one of the few things that keeps me sane.