The Start: Waking Up in a Strange Place#

Human existence can feel scary and confusing. A few hundred thousand years ago, we woke up, became conscious, and found ourselves in a really strange place.

It was filled with all sorts of other beings.

• Some we could eat.
• Some could eat us.

There was liquid stuff we could drink, and things we could use to make more things.

Looking up, the daytime sky had a tiny yellow ball that warmed our skin. At night, the sky was full of beautiful lights. This place felt like it was obviously made for us. It felt like something was watching over us, that we were home. This made everything much less scary and confusing back then.

Learning the Truth: The Universe Isn’t About Us#

But the older we got, the more we learned about the world and ourselves. We started to realize things:

• The twinkling lights aren’t shining beautifully just for us; they just are.
• We learned we’re not at the center of what we now call the universe.
• The universe is much, much older than we ever thought.
• We learned that we’re made of many little dead things, which make up bigger things that are not dead, for some reason. We are just another temporary stage in a history going back over a billion years.

We learned, in awe, about our place:

• We live on a moist speck of dust.
• This speck is moving around a medium-sized star.
• This star is in a quiet region of one arm of an average galaxy.
• Our galaxy is part of a galaxy group that we will never leave.
• This group is only one of thousands that, together, make up a galaxy supercluster.
• But even our supercluster is only one in thousands that make up what we call the observable universe.
• The universe might be a million times bigger, but we will never know.

The Problem of Scale: Space is Too Big#

We can throw words around like two hundred million galaxies or trillions of stars or bazillions of planets. But all of these numbers mean nothing, really. Our brains just can’t comprehend these concepts. The universe is simply too big. There is too much of it.

The Problem of Scale: Time is Too Short#

But size isn’t the most troubling concept we have to deal with. It’s time, or, more precisely, the time we have.

• If you’re lucky enough to live to one hundred, you have five thousand two hundred weeks at your disposal.
• If you’re twenty-five now, then you have about three thousand nine hundred weeks left.
• If you’re going to die at seventy, then there are two thousand three hundred and forty weeks left. That sounds like a lot of time, but also… not really.

The End: Death and Forever#

And then what? Your biological processes will break down, and the dynamic pattern that is you will stop being dynamic. It will dissolve until there is no you left.

Some people believe there’s a part of us we can’t see or measure, something beyond the physical. But, as far as we know, we have no way to find that out for sure. So, this life might just be it, and we might end up dead forever.

Forever Isn’t Scary#

This idea of ending forever is less scary than it sounds, though. Think about it: you don’t remember the 13.75 billion years that went by before you existed, right? Well, the trillions and trillions and trillions of years that come after you’re gone will pass in no time at all from your perspective.

Try it: Close your eyes. Count to 1. That’s how long forever feels once you’re not there.

And as far as we know, in the end, the universe itself will die too – scientists call it heat death. Then, nothing will ever change again.

Dealing with Dread: The Kurzgesagt Philosophy#

Okay, so yeah, our videos tend to give many people existential dread, and the last few minutes probably haven’t helped with that feeling.

So, for once, we want to offer a different way of looking at these things. Think of it as an unscientific, subjective point of view – kind of the philosophy of Kurzgesagt, if you want to put a name on it.

Please take it with a grain of salt, though. We don’t know any more about human existence than you do.

We like to counter that existential dread with something we call optimistic nihilism.

What is Optimistic Nihilism?#

What do we mean by that? Well, to put it simply, it seems very unlikely that 200 trillion trillion stars were made specifically for us. In a way, it can feel like the cruelest joke in existence has been played on us. We became self-aware only to realize this huge story isn’t really about us.

Science is great, don’t get us wrong. It’s awesome to know about things like electrons and the powerhouse of the cell. But honestly, science doesn’t do a whole lot to make this situation feel less depressing.

Finding Freedom in Meaninglessness#

Okay, but… so what?

You only get one shot at life. That’s scary, yes, but it also sets you free.

If the universe ends in heat death eventually, then here’s the silver lining:

• Every humiliation you suffer in your life will be forgotten.
• Every mistake you made will not matter in the end.
• Every bad thing you did will be voided.

If our life is all we get to experience, then in a strange way, it’s the only thing that matters.

Creating Our Own Meaning#

If the universe itself has no built-in principles, then the only principles that are relevant are the ones we decide on.

If the universe has no inherent purpose, then we get to dictate what its purpose is.

Humans will most certainly stop existing at some point far in the future. But before we do, we get a chance to do things.

The Value of Human Existence (While It Lasts)#

Before we cease, we get to:

• Explore ourselves.
• Explore the world around us.
• Experience feelings.
• Experience food, books, sunrises.
• Experience being with each other.

The fact that we’re even able to think about these things is already kind of incredible. It’s easy to think of ourselves as separated from everything else out there, but this is not true. We are as much the universe as a neutron star, or a black hole, or a nebula.

Even better, actually! We are its thinking and feeling part. You could say we are the center organs of the universe.

The Universe as a Playground#

We are truly free in what is essentially a universe-sized playground. So, while we’re here, we might as well aim to be happy. We might as well aim to build some kind of utopia in the stars.

It’s not like we’ve found out everything there is to know. There are still huge mysteries:

• We don’t know why the rules of the universe are the way they are.
• We don’t know how life came into existence.
• We don’t know what life is.
• We have no idea what consciousness is.
• We don’t know if we are alone in the universe.

But we can try to find some answers.

So Much to Do#

There are so many things we can do with this one shot:

• There are billions of stars to visit.
• Diseases to cure.
• People to help.
• Happy feelings to be experienced.
• Video games to finish.

There is truly so much to do.

Wrapping Up: Your One Shot#

So, to wrap things up, you’ve probably used up a good chunk of the time available to you already. If this really is our one shot at life, there is absolutely no reason not to have fun and live as happy as possible while you’re here.

• You get bonus points if you made the life of other people better.
• You get more bonus points if you help build a galactic human empire.

Ultimately, do the things that make you feel good. You get to decide whatever this means for you.