Kip at Overcoming Bias has a post entitled The Meta-Human Condition in which he lists the supposedly bleak facts of human existence (our fate is to a large degree determined, we will die, there is no afterlife, the universe is mostly empty, humans may not survive this century, etc). He draws an interesting paralell between humanity and the Titanic:
I’ll end with an analogy for the Meta-Human Condition and the Human Condition: the Titanic. If we are all in the same boat, it is sinking. The story of the Titanic squeezes the entirety of a human life into a single night. That, perhaps, is part of the story’s appeal. Everyone can relate to the poor souls trapped that boat. Those people were alone in the ocean, destined to die, just as we appear alone in our universe, destined to die.
Suppose you’re on the Titanic. Now consider the hard question. Suppose you know that, in this alternative world, everyone dies. There are no life rafts. When you tell people about the iceberg, they don’t believe you. “Hit an iceberg? You have quite an imagination, young man. Please. Have a cigar and sip some cognac. This ship has a fine captain. He is in perfect control and will keep us safe.”
Do you persist in trying to convince them of the horror of the situation? Or do you take the cigar and cognac, dance with a beautiful woman, and sing a grand old song, at least for another hour or two?
