I took this photo a few minutes ago. I think I have to take more and, I have to practice more. I felt stupid. Selfies are stupid. But then, no one else is going to take a picture of me so if someone one day ever wants to for some strange reason know what I looked like, there is very slim pickings out there and if they want a good photo of me, even less.
It is a funny world we have been thrust into as in the history of humanity, the vast majority of us go unphotographed and lived lives unseen, unrecorded and potentially albeit for a few strands of DNA, there is no testament to our existence at all. Now, we all think about legacy, the influence we have and what of ourselves we are going to leave behind. As if it matters in the grand scheme of things, as if we matter.
Supposedly over 100 billion people are estimated to have been born through time and while each and every one of them has influenced the future from their point on, very few of them will ever be remembered long-term and none of them will be remembered forever. Eventually, all that is known will become dust and if there is something out there that can still know, we will be far from its thoughts.
i find this line of thinking freeing while others find fear in it, as if to go unremembered is somehow to not have mattered, not have counted and perhaps, to have never existed. For me, to know that all will be forgotten eventually means that nothing I ever do will ever have such importance that to fail is cataclysmic. Yes, it can take my life or the life of others and it can definitely take the flimsiness of reputation and the illusion of ego but, it will never be the end.
There is no end as I see it and it doesn't matter what realm of belief one holds because the default option of the universe is that the universe is unlimited and no matter how much information we collect, we will never be able to know if there isn't more out there beyond the power of our ability to see. As far as we know, we are just one of a billion big bangs, the byproduct of atoms splitting in a chain reaction of immense nuclear proportions. If that was the case, would you still find life miraculous, find yourself special?
I would because, what are the chances of life existing in the volatility of an atomic explosion? While we can't imagine the event, it is an issue of size alone. While our perspective of size is relative to ourselves, we do not know if life fractals all the way down or, all the way up infinitely. Life tends to repeat patterns so is it so far-fetched that existence or reality is like Russian nesting dolls, each instance similar, smaller and held within the one up in size.
The trouble is that we will never be able to become aware of one up or, one down so there can never be evidence of confirmation. This means that we can keep putting ourselves at the center of the universe and believe that our existence is of primary importance in the grand scale of things, even though we are so limited in view that the grand scheme is well outside of our sphere of possible awareness that to consider it is idiocy.
Well, this idiot should sleep rather than keep rambling as there is another early morning and long day ahead and, it is only a Sunday. Too many "important" things to do, not enough time to get them done, nor do anything that may actually mean something. Whatever that may be.
Goodnight.
Sorry about the selfie
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Sometimes I see a picture of you and can't help thinking how like Galen you look!
Nothing is permanent and that can be a blessing or a curse, depending how you want to see it. Certainly good to see it as a positive when it comes to self humiliation! Lol
I guess permanence what drives us to reproduce, so that our genes can continue to live on in others. It's the only way we'll live forever.
Hope you had a good sleep.
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Born on the same day 9 years apart...
this is what I mean, every person has had some effect on the future from their point in life, remembered or not.
Meh, @smallsteps' nappy leaked then she couldn't get back to sleep for 3 hours.....
The distant twins. 😁
I think I'd have a permanent migraine on the amount of sleep you get!
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Weird to think that people like to take pictures of themselves. I don't mind group photos as a way of remembering, but a selfie just seems ridiculous and shallow. It all fits in with their Facebook and meaningless lives. as if people would want to know what they have been up to. The sad thing is they are all at it.
Yep, but at the same time, I myself wouldn't mind some decent photos of me. the worst thing is that there are almost zero photos of me with @smallsteps and those there are are crappy photos taken on a phone... The problem with someone who likes taking photos being married to someone who doesn't want to learn how to use a camera properly :D
We are only one Speck in the big picture. This world is not about us but we are mere servants to those around us. Thanks for your article get some sleep. @tarazkp
Perhaps we are slaves to those around us instead of serving ourselves.
The selfie was cute. Don't apologize!
Ha, your idea of cute is strange.
This makes me think of having yourself reborn in somewhere and someplace then get to look at your previous life’s selfies. Ain’t this cool? That may be true in the belief of Buddhism (not sure in other beliefs), well it sure do you a favor whereby digitalizing ourselves in the digital realm may make us immortal in someway.
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the digital us is immortalized for a fair amount of time but with the volume of information being added, does it matter that we are in there somewhere?
Not sure whether we are still relevant with that much of information created daily. The growth is insane. Whether or not we exist in the digital world, we may not have the capacity of emotion or physical existence to touch and feel it. There is still a lost piece connecting us between digital and physical world, emotionally.
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I agree but hopefully the gap can be closed by economic and active participation spread wider, rather than the chasm that is growing now pushed by the very few.
Well, not easy to get everyone at the proactive side, but no harm to keep preaching 😁 Steem on! Haha
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I heard a stat, that 10% of the photos ever taken were taken in the last 12 months. Saw an old photo on the wall at a restaurant last night, 20 or so workers, maybe a coal mine; likely at least 100 years ago. One guy was blinking and I wondered if he ever suspected that a century later, for all his life's work, he'd only be known for that fraction of a second.
Maybe 100 years from now that photo will be gone, and the only way he'll be known is by this comment.
Now I want to go back and take a photo...
And, who actually knows his name, just another stranger with a face. Perhaps that is the reason I think the idea is freeing. It is funny as we can see on Steem people struggling now to maintain relevance by acting like children wanting attention.
Proof of life through network. This is why a city can live forever but countries come and go.
I did not have a picture of me and I do regreat it. Driver license is the only picture or the most resent one. Now I can’t take a picture until some recovery is done. I look so bad. Aged 10 years in a matter of months. It does feel dorkie to take a selfie . :)
Take them anyway as later you might want to remember the battle. Be the dork.
I did miss some good pictures for records
Be the Dork !! 👍
Thanks for sharing your interesting thoughts. It's easy to feel small and unimportant in the "grand scheme of things", and it's an healthy thought to have as this allows us to realise how ridiculous the ego is and thus helps us diminish its destructive impulses.
But on the other end, it's also true that everyone is an universe in itself - no one has ever lived the same way you did, had the same experiences, thoughts, emotions, etc. Without you and all the equally "unimportant" beings to perceive it, no universe would exist as there would be only be nothingness - there might still be matter and energy, but it would be just like nothingness if no one perceives it (if a tree falls and no one hears it, did it really happen?). The only true and meaningful universe is the one that's created through the interplay of all these micro-universes that living beings are. And in a butterfly-effect kind of way, all of your actions can have grand unforeseable consequences on the fate of Everything.
And thus, somehow, every single being is an essential and irreplaceable part of the universe. To paraphrase Carl Sagan, this is how the universe gets to know itself in a way that goes deeper and deeper with the passage of eons.
Sorry for the hazy comment. Your fault for writing a thought-provoking post ;)
(And by the way, selfies are not stupid when done in moderation. Every person and moment is precious and deserves to be preserved in some way.)
I agree but does it matter to anyone else at all? maybe in a narrow band of existence only. I am okay with that, I don't mind being forgotten but, every movement lives forever, even if not able to put a face or name to the event.
one day it will become history 🌍
it is already.
Blowing my mind with these considerations but I feel that we are still pertinent in the bubbles we create and the small communities we form although at the end we are just one more in the billions that have been.
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It is interesting that out importance is only recognised in a small cross-section of the timeline but what we do could ripple on into the greatest discoveries of the future. Being one's best means to do one's best for that future that one will never have the chance to see.
Well, for an instant I thought that you were being serious along this article. And then, I saw the tag #fiction at the end and suddenly saw the things clearer :p
I was going to tag it science fiction but at the same time, it is quite a lot closer to reality than fiction.
Given the scarce availability of your selfies in the universe, this easily can be both reality & fiction.
Do you think these could be mooning on CMC anytime soon? I would buy the dip!! :)
it is just lucky I am so pretty.
Ah, you've learned Finnish, congrats!!..
Must be difficult though, with so few similarities to the English language.
Not to worry. A hundred years from now, you’ll be remembered as The Godfather of Steem.
I always wanted to be the godfather of something but they said something about religion and I backed away ;D
It’s crazy to think about that number of people existing here on this rock throughout time.
I often think of the idea of “being remembered” for something. But I also think that I probably will be, to those closest to me and I’m totally ok with that. I don’t need to impress strangers or be written about. As long as I made an impact to some degree with those that I would like to remember, I’m ok with that.
As always sir...bravo on making me think a bit.
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I am hoping for a Norse ode to be passed verbally from generation to generation... ;D
We all make an impact, even comic book nerds.
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