Neostoic philosophy is about bringing into the forefront of our lives, the idea that we now can effect suffering and death.
A Quick Thought Experiment:
If you woke up in the middle of a lake, and you can’t see land but you have the knowledge that it may be in reach...
What would you do?
Most people of course answer that they would swim. Is this human life not the same exact thought experiment being played out? We KNOW we may be in reach of making death optional (finding land) so why would you not swim (fight for human healthspan). Passivity is suicide of the soul.
Swimming is direct, fighting death is not. What do I do?
The story linked HERE shows the power of the tiniest actions we take towards these goals as having massive potential.
To try is to succeed. But to try means to feel the emotion, of fear of losing the ones we love. The stronger we love, the more we can feel the fears of its loss.
Think of the limitless motivation you would have to save a family member if they lay on their death bed and you could run to grab the cure to save them. Understand that this situation is relative and that you can metaphorically run to find the cure. Use this thought experiment to feel the emotion to drive the action. Even sharing this article to one person increases the chances of living in a world where you, and your family are suffering less, and living more.
If you already lost ones you loved, read this article on why you should hold on to hope, and make sure things go right for humanity. (Hint: Maybe we can bring them back)
While a more esteemed goal would be making all humans that are suffering from old age not have to, it doesnt derive the same emotional state this as the direct family relationship does. Thinking of our family or significant others suffering strikes a deeper chord, heart strings that build bigger fires of passion.
The same phenomenon of local motivation can be observed in The Drowning Child thought experiment which goes over the how any person walking past a drowning child would have a moral obligation to go in to the water and save them even if it meant a major inconvenience to them. The thought experiment continues to ponder over the thought of how, in our interconnected society in this age of information, we are all within reach of people whose lives we can save. However, the abstraction of the process does not allow our emotions to align with this simple notion.
The idea of regret in living a life in which we don’t fight for our personal loved ones to suffer less is enough for most of us to feel empowered and driven, while the abstraction of the millions of other parents who still need our help is more difficult for the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, to process.
In a sense then, the logical understanding that the same help that benefits our own parents, will benefit the hundred of millions of others who are going to suffer through old age is a great way to align our old operating system of emotions to the more rational minded prefrontal cortex part of our brain.
For some, the direct benefit to self is the biggest motivator. Because we are all subject to the slow rot of the aging process, our own suffering and loss of our body is at stake. The fear of entering the unknown, of losing reality and everything one knows, can be a great emotion to help fuel our fires.
I mean…. its truly is a life or death situation.
Zooming Out On Life, And In On Purpose
From a small blue planet we have become conscious.
Before our universe birthed consciousness, there was no beauty, as beauty only exists as a conscious experience, and before there were beings to sense it there was no sense of beauty. Here on earth we disagree on many things but tend to agree that life is beautiful.
With the spawn of cellular life came the pursuit of goals. With beings emerging who had goals and came into self-awareness came the idea of greater meaning and purpose. Had our universe never birthed consciousness it would have been completely pointless. Merely a gigantic waste of space, and if we went back to sleep it would become meaningless again. Does this mean our very existence is meaning in it of itself. If you can believe it, it can be true. It has meaning because you get to say that it does.
And you just so happen to be born right when the boundaries of limitation are looking to get broken, right when man enters a breakthrough period of creating something truly greater than US. But this story is still going, and you get to change how it all plays out and even if just a small impact this video shows how large that could actually be. The bridge from mortals to demi-gods is here to cross.
We don’t yet know if we are the only conscious beings, or the first. But we do know that we are here and our species has not locked in it’s place in this universe. We do know that the greatest quest we could have ever dreamed for is before us, waiting for us to take charge.
We could live on and spread gloriously throughout the cosmos, and it may be based on the little decisions we make here on this planet, during our life.
This website, this philosophy, is a call to action, for a fight for meaning and for your existence.
Do not suppress that fear of going into that good night. Rage, rage, against the dying of the light. For many years are ahead, and what else could be right? Feel the emotion, channel it, and fight.
And if you cant do it for the world, can you at least do it for yourself? Can you imagine your slow rot, and beg for it to not. Can you imagine a future that makes you a bit excited to stay? Can you imagine how things could be in 10,000 more days.
If you do not want to fight for yourself, is there anyone you’ve found worth fighting for? Is there family, or loved ones, or even a pet? And if there’s no loved ones now, don’t fret. That only means there’s no loved ones yet.
For there’s many many more for you to meet and see. Just have faith. Have faith in WHATEVER you can. Have faith in faith itself.
If you wont fight for them, and if you wont fight for you, maybe I can show you the world and then you’ll fight too?
My number is here if you’re feeling blue or ever ready to start a new | 520-261-4404. -Existist
P.S. Beyond the ideas shared here, a deeper theory is gaining traction called
Galactic Preschool Theory that can bring even greater hopes to pass this test of time. It’s not only an awesome theory but statistically LIKELY. If true, we are still babies of the cosmos. Growing up, in the final stage of dystopia, the perfect time to be.