John Gray & Will Self: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death (RSA)

[EscapeCowschwitz]

Its not healthy to be preoccupied by death when you could be having fun exploring the mystery of life. However, the current ethos seems to be; get whatever you want (its so easy now)...then maybe think about death when all self-satisfying experiences have been exhausted and boredom starts to creep in.

Death isnt really worth thinking about anyway when you're young, unless you are directly affected by it.

[EscapeCowschwitz]

I believe in NOTHING.. These two are weird.

[timworsley]

The words of DFW I meant to post can be found in Pt 2 of "This is Water", a commencement speech he gave in 2005. The part I was referring to comes at 7:57 but worth listening to it in its entirety...

[timworsley]

I found especially interesting what they say about the "more-ishness" of modern life. Perhaps I am stating the obvious but is the obsession with biggerfasterbetter merely an attempt to replace the eternity/infinity promised by religion? If so, clearly it cannot succeed and will ultimately leave us feeling we have lost something infinite/eternal.

In the words of the late David Foster Wallace:

Thanks for posting!

[yachtomee]

@AbstractGambit Think you talk a lot of sense. I think anybody with an ounce of intelligence, born into the western world, will suffer from bouts of depression from time to time. I often despair having been raised and 'educated' to be a part of the capitalistic society we live in today.

[OurEpicMovie]

You need a thesaurus on hand for this one, eye opening stuff to say the least.

Shame we did not get to see the Q&A at the end but thanks for uploading.

[MenOfLetters]

Two heavyweight writers holding forth on the mysteries of the cosmos. A thousand flowers of gratitude for this delight.

[raxachol]

@MenOfLetters A thousand cakes would be more appreciated, I suspect. Cake is fucking brilliant.