Nightmares of the Young Penguin

[extrapenguin]

• ENTROPY. It increases constantly.
• Relatedly, the eventual heat death of the universe.
• One day, the Sun will expand into a red giant.
• Needles.
• What if the universe just keeps expanding forever, never to bring forth a Big Crunch that might set forth a new Big Bang and thus potential for life?
• What if aliens don't exist and we're alone in the universe?
• Like seriously, the laws of thermodynamics. One is playing a game where one can only lose? And we can't quit?

Ah well.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

Ha, first learning about entropy blew my mind in similar ways (but that's not FAIR!), so I coped with writing a jaunty little song about embracing it, which you might find amusing: here (you can tell this was ALSO around the time I first read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :P)

[extrapenguin]

Heh! :D A nice song; I believe you might've linked to me before?

In any case, I think that all this entropy stuff is what set me down the path of nihilism. Our lives are ephemeral, so might as well make the most of 'em.

[hamsterwoman]

I might've linked you before, since I do know we talked about science-y poetry (though I no longer remember how we got on that topic... the "Sonnet with Glyoxylate", probably?

Our lives are ephemeral, so might as well make the most of 'em.

Same, although I do think in my case "make the most" = "enjoy as much as possible".

[extrapenguin]

Fandom_stocking, I believe? "Sonnet with Glyoxylate" came after, IIRC.

I try to aim for maximum satisfaction, which is ... I suppose close enough to enjoyment? This subtopic tends to run into "yes but what do you mean with that word" issues, fast. (Nothing quite as embarrassing as arguing over a nuance forever, only to realize you were in agreement the whole time!)

[hamsterwoman]

Ah, that is also very possible!

Nothing quite as embarrassing as arguing over a nuance forever, only to realize you were in agreement the whole time!)

Haha, yes! That does happen to me a fair bit. I guess it's a combination of me being pedantic and having access to multiple vocabulary banks to draw on, given the mix of languages usually involved , because I find that words like this often have different connotations/feelings/nuances in different languages, that I may not even be aware of when I'm using the English word but it may be shaded for me with a sense of a word I'm mentally mapping onto it from Russian, and stuff like that.