I've thought about this once or twice before. I wonder how we would view life if we didn't die from aging or disease, but only accidents, like a fire, car crash, gun shot, etc.
What would happen to religion? Do you choose to continue aging, die, and take your chances with the heaven you've been saying exists, or do you take the new pill, and live forever? If you take the pill, what does that say about your faith in the afterlife?
Do we fear death even more? If I'm going to die in a few decades of old age as my health deteriorates, I might as well enjoy my prime, and take some risks now. If I die, well, no big deal, I was going to die soon enough anyway. If I'm married, 60 years old, and my wife dies, that would be a sad day, but let's not kid ourselves, we're getting old. If your grandma passes away, well, it was her time, she lived a long life.
But, if we live forever, we fear those accidents. If your wife dies in a plane crash age 60, how does that affect you? You might have expected to spend the next ten thousand years together, and she's gone. Do we stop taking these risks? Do I step in a car, or on a plane? I'm willing to take that risk now, but if I knew I could potentially live forever, I wouldn't want to risk dying with so much time still remaining.
Do we enter the world of virtual reality? Why leave my home, I could get hit by lightning, I could get shot walking down the street, hit by a car, or attacked by animals. Why don't I lock myself in an underground bunker facility, and connect to the world through virtual reality? I toss on the goggles, and I enter the VR world where I meet with friends and family, and go on wild adventures, because I can take these risks in the VR world. If I die, I respawn. My body is safe in the bunker, while I pretend to be outside.
Although we're joking, I wonder if Bitcoin would be far more successful if it originated within a platform like Steam. Let's say Steam replaced their wallet with Hatcoins. They allow users to add Hatcoins from their bank account, send Hatcoins to other users, purchase hats, and Steam games at a 2% discount if using Hatcoins during 2014. Valve runs the main Hatcoin exchange, and you'll have millions of people using the currency within a year. If I run a gaming site, I could start accepting Hatcoin donations or subscriptions, since they're already popular with gamers. Or, I could pay for servers using Hatcoins, buy Minecraft items with Hatcoins, Humble Bundles, games from GreenManGaming and GamersGate, etc.
It seems like they would have something that Bitcoin doesn't, a lively economy and marketplace to add stability.
I spent some time in Indonesia, where the helper for your guest house is making $50/mo. They're cleaning the rooms, running errands around the city, making breakfast, gardening, etc.
What you make in a couple of days, they make in a year. It's mind boggling. Yes, cost of living is cheaper, but not that cheap.
On the plus side, you feel like you can make a difference in their life. If you're living there, you can pay them a great salary, without breaking the bank. Or if you're visiting, they might not expect tips, but hand someone $5 that went out of their way to give you a free ride on their moped, and you just dropped a few days income in their pocket.
1. To-do list. Come up with 10 things you want to accomplish on the project tomorrow. Keep them small, so they're 20 minutes of work each. When you wake up, you have some direction, and get a sense of accomplishment as you check things off. Since they're quick to finish, you can convince yourself to take care of one 20 minute task before playing a few rounds of Counter-Strike. Waking up, and thinking, 'Uhh, I really need to finish this project', is overwhelming, and you don't know where to begin, or even want to think about it. Write your to-do list for the next day before you go to bed. Just sit down for 20 minutes, and think about a small step you can move forward.
2. Take a break and focus on other hobbies. You don't need to think about your project 24 hours a day. No, seriously, you can take a break. Here's the situation. You have work to finish, so you convince yourself you can't take a break and leave the computer. At the same time, you don't want to think about work. So, you end up browsing HN, Reddit, and playing games the entire day. In the end, you accomplish absolutely nothing, didn't enjoy yourself because in the back of your mind you're thinking, 'I should be working', and you don't even feel like you took a break to begin with. Set aside some time for a break. Pick an hour, and watch a movie, or go to the park next door and play with your dog, or work on something hands on around the house, or do some exercises or meditation. When you dedicate a particular period of time to take off, you can actually enjoy it, without feeling guilty. It's a good way to clear your mind. When you write your to-do list, choose the times you'll break the next day. Don't make your break HN, and get off the computer if possible.
Anyway, good luck. I'm in the exact same position, 95% finished a project that's been going on for well over a year, and trying to get things wrapped up.
Isn't the universe just a bunch of math? This leads me to wonder if we have any control over our lives. Isn't every action I take simply the result of all my senses, my previous knowledge, the environment, and the people around me?
For example, if the universe just went 1 hour back in time, why would anything go differently the second time around?
Unless you can prove something is truly random in the universe, and not affected by anything else, are we not just on autopilot? I get the feeling from the moment of the big bang, I was going to exist and inevitably write this comment billions of years later, and nothing could stop it. I mean, 1+1=2. It doesn't matter how many times you run the simulation again, you get the same answer.
What would happen to religion? Do you choose to continue aging, die, and take your chances with the heaven you've been saying exists, or do you take the new pill, and live forever? If you take the pill, what does that say about your faith in the afterlife?
Do we fear death even more? If I'm going to die in a few decades of old age as my health deteriorates, I might as well enjoy my prime, and take some risks now. If I die, well, no big deal, I was going to die soon enough anyway. If I'm married, 60 years old, and my wife dies, that would be a sad day, but let's not kid ourselves, we're getting old. If your grandma passes away, well, it was her time, she lived a long life.
But, if we live forever, we fear those accidents. If your wife dies in a plane crash age 60, how does that affect you? You might have expected to spend the next ten thousand years together, and she's gone. Do we stop taking these risks? Do I step in a car, or on a plane? I'm willing to take that risk now, but if I knew I could potentially live forever, I wouldn't want to risk dying with so much time still remaining.
Do we enter the world of virtual reality? Why leave my home, I could get hit by lightning, I could get shot walking down the street, hit by a car, or attacked by animals. Why don't I lock myself in an underground bunker facility, and connect to the world through virtual reality? I toss on the goggles, and I enter the VR world where I meet with friends and family, and go on wild adventures, because I can take these risks in the VR world. If I die, I respawn. My body is safe in the bunker, while I pretend to be outside.