Posted on August 1, 2022
Updated: August 1, 2022
“When we say that our lives are short; short compared to what?
Certainly short compared to the life of a hypothetical immortal being. But it might make more sense to compare our lives, not to a hypothetical immortal being – but to all the countless hypothetical people who never got to be born in the first place. From that perspective, it’s not really cruel that our lives aren’t longer – rather it’s a staggering, stupendous bonus that we get any time on the planet as conscious creatures at all.“
– Oliver Burkeman on the Making Sense podcast