“what makes you so damn important that you need to live forever? Get over yourself. After you die, there will be others taking over your work, assuming it was worth doing. Leave some biological and intellectual offspring and shuffle off this mortal coil and give a new generation a chance”
I vehemently disagree. What makes me so damn important, huh? What makes you so damn unimportant that you’re not even giving it a try? The answer to both of these: You, yourself; you make yourself dman important or don’t. Importance and significance are self-made. No one can give them to you. You must earn them.
There are damn important people. Unfortunately most of them were. Think of the joy if you could revive the best minds who’ve ever walked the earth. If you aren’t one of them, try to become one.
“The standard rebuttal is that evil is Man’s own fault,”
There is no evil. There is neutrality. The universe isn’t man’s fault; it isn’t anyone’s fault.
I’m not at all saddened by these facts. My emotional state is unaltered. It’s because I take them neutrally.
I’ve experienced severe pain enough to know that A) Torture works. Really. It does. If you don’t believe it, try it. It’ll be a short lesson. B) Pain is not such a big deal. It’s just an avoid-this-at-all-cost -signal. Sure, I’m in agony, sure, I’d hate to remain in a situation where that signal doesn’t go away, but it still is just a signal.
Perhaps as you look at some spot in the sky, they’ve already—neutrality allowing—tamed neutrality there; made it Friendly.
We’ve got a project to finish.