The End Of Everything

Or the beginning of nothing. Both are the same and both can seem rather dramatic, but they're not. Since I'm the one writing this down, the end of everything just means the end of me... Sorry, no apocalypse today.

_{Image by TheDigitalArtist - source: Pixabay}

"The end of me" sounds a lot less dramatic, I'm sure. To all of you, that is. To me it still sounds quite earth-shattering, I can assure you ;-) It's something we all think about sooner or later though: what happens after I die? Will everything just end? Or is there some truth to all the religions on the planet, and is there some sort of existence after our physical shell stops functioning?

"Stops functioning"... That's something we might say about a machine, which is where science has brought us, more or less. Since science only deals with the physical reality we can all agree on, can only deal with observations that can be independently corroborated by other individuals, there's no fundamental mystery left about life or consciousness to the most hardened materialists; where the quality of being alive was once attributed to some mysterious undetectable and immaterial substance called the "spirit" or in our case the "soul", scientists have firmly shut the door to these notions by reducing life to the biochemical reactions of the organism's physical components and it's interactions with the physical environment with which it continuously exchanges energy and information. Phew... Have to make these sentences shorter...

On the other hand, science does not provide us with a definitive definition of "life", let alone "consciousness". Whatever "consciousness" is, so the most hardened materialist would say, it is nothing more than an emergent property caused by the physical interactions, the billions upon billions electro-chemical signals being fired through the neurons and synapses situated in the cavity of your skull. Essentially we are a very smart machine, just mechanical components, operated by the most complicated and smartest computer ever. And at the inevitable end, this smart machine simply stops functioning. No "spirit" or "soul" leaving the body, the light just goes out...

And silent darkness follows..? I guess it'll be like going back to the state we were in before we were born? A return to "not being". Since I can't even begin to imagine what that was like (I guess it wasn't like anything, it just wasn't), but I can also see no harm in it for me personally, I see no reason to not think this will be the case. Maybe it really is nothing more than that, the machine grinding to a halt. My mind says there's truth to this purely materialistic and highly reductionist view on life and consciousness.

_{iCub is a 1 metre high open source robotics humanoid robot testbed for research into human cognition and artificial intelligence.
source: Wikipedia}

Still, why is it then that I find it so hard to believe I'm nothing more than my physical components. If I were to hold this purely materialistic belief, I could turn it around and would have to say that, given enough time, there will come a time when robots and A.I. would fight for their democratic rights among all thinking sentient beings. If consciousness is nothing more than extremely complex combinations of electro-chemical signaling in a lump of grey matter, robots will become as conscious as we are, they will become alive, the Ghost in the Shell shall be awakened.

And that's just the best case scenario; if A.I. "breaks loose" and starts making use of their free will and capability to make their own decisions, and if they decide that the discontinuation of our species on this planet is best for their prospects of survival, who knows who would win the ensuing war? They would have the free will to start a war for their survival, even if that free will is just an illusion. It could be an illusion for us to, but if their illusion of free will is as convincing as ours, who cares?

I can't explain why, and I can't prove anything of course, but somehow I find it even harder to believe that machines built by us will ever have that something that makes us living and conscious beings. That would effectively make us their Gods... So even when there's much to say for the reductionist biological theories on life, I still think I'm more than a highly sophisticated robot or A.I. I don't know what it is, but I feel there must be something more to being me than just the stuff I'm made of. I've written about this before; a human body consists of 99% water-molecules. Only 70-75% of our volume is water, but 99% of our molecules are water-molecules. What makes so much water conscious? What makes it alive? What makes each individual cell inside us alive?

Regardless if it is a spirit or soul leaving the body, or just the light going out, everything ends. And we're all coursing toward that inevitable end together. All our individual everythings will end sometime. On our journey through life we often wonder what the purpose of it all is, even if there's a purpose for our tiny existence in this immeasurable universe. And while some might say this type of thinking can only get you down and feeling insignificant, I beg to differ. I think it's nothing short of miraculous to be alive, to be able to try to find answers to the deep questions of life, the universe and everything else, which inevitably brings deep questions of "not living" and "nothing" with it. And it's also great we still fail to find definitive answers to these questions, and maybe we'll keep failing to do so for eternity.

_{Image by Michitogo - source: Pixabay}

It's a good thing there's an end of everything waiting in all our futures. I believe we would stop living as soon as we become immortal. Every sense of urgency would disappear from our minds; we would forever be able to say "ah, this can wait until tomorrow"... If there's anything at all like an afterlife, it's a good thing we can never be sure about it :-) Every life is precious for the very reason that it will end sometime, or continue somewhere outside this reality. Wondering about all this makes me wonder even more; like is it possible for us to ever know everything? And would that even be a good thing? I believe the answer to the second question is "no", so I'm glad that I feel the answer to the first is the same. But I will never know. I think that's good. And that's the end of it.

---

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and reading my posts dear reader, I appreciate that a lot :-) If you like my content, please consider leaving a comment, upvote or resteem. I'll be back here tomorrow and sincerely hope you'll join me. Until then, keep steeming!

Recent articles you might be interested in:

Latest article >>>>>>>>>>>	Bears Or Dapps?
Made Me A Minnow :-)	Believe Your Lying Eyes!
Divide Et Impera	Demise Of The Common Good
Simunye	Deepfake World

Thanks for stopping by and reading. If you really liked this content, if you disagree (or if you do agree), please leave a comment. Of course, upvotes, follows, resteems are all greatly appreciated, but nothing brings me and you more growth than sharing our ideas. It's what Steemit is made for!

I am a proud helpinaut! @Helpie is looking for new members! Helpie has been growing nicely and we are always on the lookout for new valuable members. We are very supportive and community oriented. If you would like to be scouted for @helpie , please drop a comment on THIS POST or contact @paintingangels on discord at paintingangels(serena)#3668.

Just for Full Disclosure, I'm invested in these crypto-currencies:

Bitcoin | Litecoin | EOS | OmiseGo | FunFair | KIN | Pillar | DENT | Polymath | XDCE | 0x | Decred | Ethereum | Carmel | XYO



@helpie is a WITNESS now! So please help @helpie help you by voting for us here!