The use of the word “secret” seems to imply they are intentionally hiding this from us.

You are not wrong. There seems to be a similar level of responses too.

Oh well, at least I can rotate between behavioral addictions for constant distraction

That’s a good point, and a nice sentiment, but I feel the need to point out that the owl actually was poisoned by living in the city.

:(

how could someone view this as anything other than dystopian?

:(

Based. Seems like a great way to start a conversation.

Because of the nature of time, the universe is in a constant state of becoming something else. Everything is changing all the time. But, because of the Laws of Conservation of Energy and Mass, there is always part of what was before persisting in what is now. For example, a fire burns logs, releasing the kinetic energy as heat, water vapor, carbon dioxide, etc. The heat dissipates because the atmosphere is very large, but it doesn’t dissappear, it just gets diluted. The water vapor is released into the atmosphere, and those molecules become moisture in a cloud and turn into rain, continuing in the water cycle. In a metaphorical sense, your past selves have “burned” and “released” what you are now. You may consider your past selves dead, but the molecules that made them continue to exist as your current self, even if those molecules are rearranged or are slightly different (we eat food and excrete waste, so our molecules are regularly being exchanged with other molecules in the environment). Those same molecules were once inside the sun. Before that, those molecules existed at the beginning of the universe. So, in a way, yes we are constantly dying and being transformed, but the stuff that we are made of can never die. We are just constantly changing, along with the universe, because we are part of the universe.

Zardoz Clause!

real men have stinky pee

You know it’s bad when Ronald MacDonald is warning you about the dangers inequality

B

https://youtu.be/3Xgl8gSbbv8?si=5eY8gQN8mHC-tWw7

Are you sure this isn’t just a picture of Captain Jonathan Archer?

I’ve felt this way quite often in my life, including recently, and I usually get through it by focusing on the small moments that I can enjoy. But reading your words and thinking about that feeling again this time made me think “I should do a random act of kindness for someone”. It sounds cheesy and kinda pointless, but helping someone else or doing a random nice thing for someone else can sometimes make the world seem like a better place. And when the world seems like a better place, it has the potential to become that. I guess it’s the old “be the change you want to see in the world” thing.

This is all stuff people have told me over the years when I’ve sought help for depression, and I usually brushed it off, to be honest. But I empathize with your words, and I wouldn’t want anyone else to feel the hopelessness about the world that I’ve felt, so I thought “maybe a niceness would prevent that feeling for someone else”.

Idk, I’m rambling now, but I hope this makes sense. And I hope you (and I) find a way to feel better about the potential of our world, as opposed to its apparent current state.

And when those people eventually get caught, they would be dealt with by the populace. Consequences for people’s actions is the same deterrent that currently “stops” people from stealing shit all the time (i.e. people still steal shit with the existence of police)

oof I certainly hope so

I think you’re probably right, but a world where robots do art and humans do the tedious manual labor sounds eerily similar to the world we live in. At least, it is not outside the realm of possibility.

Basil Hayden, Woodford Reserve, Knob Creek, Angel’s Envy, Old Grandad, Bulleit are all great choices.

Basil Hayden or Woodford would definitely be my first choice though.