If you were knowingly the last person on earth, other than survival itself, what value would you take from your experience? What value would you add? Would you spend your time creating art? Would you write the great American novel? What is the human value of anything if ultimately, there is no one to share it with?
At least in my own opinion, there really isn't any value. Though, people will argue with me on this, because I think they haven't really thought it through. When the conditions are unimaginable, we can't imagine how we will respond to them, or feel about them. It is like imagining oneself being dead - what does that look like? And, we can't imagine ourselves being truly alone, because we don't know what that might feel like. Sure, we might have been lost before, we might have felt alone, but we always know that out there somewhere, there are other people.
When I reflect on these things though, I always end up at the same conclusion, where unless there is someone to share life with, there really isn't much point to being alive. And, I think that by extension, we are highly unlikely to spend time developing ourselves or our skills for anything that isn't for our immediate survival. I don't even know if we would look at the most glorious sunset, and appreciate it. Remember, this isn't alone for the time being,
it is utterly alone. Forever.
For those living with someone in a relationship now, just think about the rare times you might be home alone and have to make dinner. Do you spend hours prepping the meal, or do you throw something into the microwave, or eat a bag of chips out of the packet? For another example, I have travelled for work a fair bit and in the evenings, eaten at some nice hotel restaurant. However, no matter how good the meal is, it is just food. Without someone to sit with me and share the experience, it just isn't as good.
And at those times, I am not even actually "alone", am I?
These days, a lot of emphasis is put on the individual and taking care of the self, but I think that mid to long term at least, if "taking care of the self" doesn't involve sharing life with others, it is going to collapse. The only way for it to not, is for an individual to be so self-centered, that no one else is even seen - like if being the last person on earth.
Ultimately, it the thought experiment is moot, because the last person would have no one to share the experience with to report fact or fiction. There would be no intelligent feedback, no discourse, no point to even think about it. There wouldn't be much reason to do anything.
Which is why when talking with the psychologist the other day, I was saying that what is the point of survival, if there is only the experience of surviving? Why endure if there is nothing more than making it to the next obstacle?
She didn't have a good answer for this.
Not that I was expecting her to of course, but I do think it is a worthwhile discussion. Because other than obligation to others, if I had nothing to share of value with others, I don't see much point in doing anything at all. I'd just be taking up space for no reason.
For a species who has little regard for mass losses of life, whether natural or caused by us, we put a lot of value in the endurance of individuals. While people might die in traffic accidents every day, we expect people who hate their lives, to keep on living. And often the excuse of "think about the people you leave behind" is used. Which is ironic really, isn't it? But it does point to how we do actually value the ability to share, or have the option if we want to take it.
Humans have an uncanny ability to overcome obstacles and endure severe adversity, and while it is often attributed to survival instinct, I think that the instinct is driven by our social needs. We want to survive for others. It might not even be just to get back to loved ones, it could be just so we don't get the sense of failure in other people's eyes. But, when there is no one else around, you don't have to worry about what they think about your failures.
While there are saying like "dance as if no one is watching" to highlight not caring about other's opinions, I think the irony is that if there really was no one out there watching, the last person wouldn't dance at all.
I don't know what they would do.
Maybe survive to pass the time.
Or take risks to end it sooner.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
We can absolutely imagine, there's no problem there (unless one both lacks imagination and the ability to think outside their heads). It's just likely to be more inaccurate the less experience you have in that and related areas.
I have also at least thought about some of the stuff you mentioned coz I have/had a lot of characters and a lot of the poor buggers end up in some interesting situations
I'm completely unsurprised that "take care of/make some time for yourself" got taken to the point of idiocy too.
It is this side. I am looking at it from a more philosophical side of things. We can imagine anything - but the accuracy of it will vary :)
We are idiots :D
We are absolutely a very social species and sadly I think a lot of people are dissuaded from understanding that through one insidious mean or another. Like the people who say that we need a few billion less people on the planet. Why don’t you start, bud?
I certainly don’t really enjoy things when I don’t have my family with me especially at this stage where we’ve been together so long that time without them isn’t as entertaining. I know some people hate their families and I think that’s sad on many levels. I wouldn’t enjoy a fancy restaurant without them there to share the experience for sure.
I am a little different though if I was the last one left. It’s weird but I would try to make sure that I left things for others to find like aliens or something. Or future humans if we get repopulated. I wouldn’t be able to build the pyramids but it’s one of those things where you want to leave something and try to explain what happened.
Hell I wonder if that’s how hieroglyphs were originally started. Their spoken language was different and maybe their written one too because they knew people wouldn’t know it. Hieroglyphs though are kind of universal. Picture of man, sun, spear, animal etc are pretty recognizable. These letters here not so much if the language is gone forever.
"W e need less - but I should survive, because I add so much value"
Exactly. Still looking to share something. Even if you don't know what happens with it. It is like those probes and signals out into space in the hope aliens will find it.
What would be even harder to decode perhaps, is all the zeroes and ones. Without all the algorithms between, is it decodable into a language thousands of years later?
I think I would fill the time with doing things that bring me pleasure, be it watching movies/shows or reading books or simply listening to my favorite music.
But yes, you do have a great point. We do things for others, that is also why it feels soo bad when our most loved ones are in conflict with us even temporarily.
And I reckon these days, we are more likely to conflict over rather useless stuff, like politics.
I tend to have some pretty good conversations with myself, so it might not be too bad 😃. I'd probably read a lot more than I do now for sure. Just to pass the time more than anything. You are right though, it would be pretty pointless. Unless aliens came along and found you or something like that.
Imagine what the aliens would think if they came and
a) you had done nothing but survive
b) you created a world of art for no one
They'd probably be really impressed or really sad I would guess :)
Sure, I would spend time creating something to get rid of boredom and loneliness, perhaps talk to it in the end :) Otherwise, one could drive crazy under this condition :)
Exactly - "someone" to share with, even if no one exists. ;)
This used to keep me up at night a lot when I was a kid. I hated not knowing!
So true mate! I am an absolute mess when I am living by myself. Lack of motivation to do much of anything: cook, clean, wash, sleep. The last time my partner left me, I was staying up late at night doing nonsense while letting the dishes stack up and eating very little food because I could barely be bothered to make it.
I hate living alone, and in my while life, I've only ever lived in a leased apartment solo for about 4 months. It was awful. At least when I was living out of my car by myself, there was some adventure to camping out and the need to take care of myself in these random situations. Plus I was still making plenty of house calls through internet dating, so I was less alone than during my apartment lease. You are right, I am more motivated to do for others than I am to do for myself!
I have spent a few years living alone over the last 25, but no more than a couple in a row. I don't like it either, though there are some good sides to it as a younger single guy (back in the day). My place would always be spotless though, and the sheets changed regularly :)
Your family raised you right! For me though, spots everywhere, even with my current roommates/partner. It is definitely one of my drawbacks for sure.
Haha, great minds think alike. I was just thinking about solitude when I was writing my daily poem.
Will have to come have a read :)
I would leave my impressions for another mind (future guests of our planet).
But seriously, I think that the Universe is a very complex thing and our consciousness exists after the death of the body. In the next world there is something to do for a curious soul.
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It could feel sad and very annoying when we are in conflict with our loved ones. This is because many of the things we are doing, we are doing them for each other. Well, it's good to find pleasure for ourselves
Once upon a time, I used to engage, for months or years at a time, in massive multiplayer online browser strategy games where alliances with strangers from all over the planet were common enough. If you were one who would go outside of some nationally based circle. If I were not able to show up in the game on time to share some mission with people whom I knew nothing about other than their ingame behavior and mIRC chats, I would feel bad about deserting them. It was kind of a high priority not to allow that to happen.