Over the last few months, or maybe a year, I’ve had this thought running through my
head which I just haven’t been able to shake.
It’s a theory (or more correctly, a hypothesis) on life and death and why I think that I don’t
just cease to exist when I die.
I must mention that I find this theory very hard to describe in my own mind, let alone
put it into words and explain it out loud.
But despite this, I’m going to try, and give you an illustration of my theory on life
and death.
Imagine, if you will, that your existence is represented by this timeline in space.
The blip in the middle is your life.
This represents everything that has happened to you, as well as everything that will happen
to you in your finite 70 or 80 years on this planet.
If you’re lucky or have good DNA, you might extend this out to 100 or 110 years depending
on how well you look after yourself and the effects of any future advancements in medical
science.
But one thing that we all know fairly certainly is that this is finite.
On this day, you were born, and on some unknown day in the future, you will die.
Everything before the blip is the time before you were born.
It extends out indefinitely.
As it is in the past, we will label it -∞, that is, an infinite amount of time has passed
before your arrival.
Everything after the blip is the time after you die.
It extends out indefinitely into the future, so let’s label it +∞.
If we believe that we only have one life and that our life is finite in an infinite universe
(or multiverse, or whatever you wish to call it), then this is the model that we subscribe
to.
Our life is just a blip.
Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
However, this is where my theory begins.
The very fact that you are experiencing anything means that there is something wrong with this
model.
If there was an infinite amount of time before you were born, or if there’s going to be
an infinite amount of time after you die, then surely you would already be in one of
those states.
There is no possibility of you being in this state that we call “living”.
So this model is simply wrong.
Think of it like this.
If after you die, there’s just an eternity of nothingness, and in that nothingness, you
have no knowledge or awareness of anything.
You no longer exist, and you have no memory of ever having existed.
Then wouldn’t you already be in the state?
The very fact that you are existing and experiencing life right now means that something is wrong
with this model.
Mathematically speaking, if you live x number of years in your life, and the amount of time
before and after your life is infinite, then the probability of you being alive is x divided
by infinity, which is 0.
There is no chance that you would be experiencing life if this model were true.
(For those more mathematically minded listeners, we should technically be using limits.
That is, the limit of x divided by n as n approaches infinity is zero, where x is any
finite number).
There are three ways that I can think of to fix this model.
The first involves adjusting the infinite scale of the model.
In order to do this, we must make one major assumption — that death is real and that
we will all die someday.
It’s not an unreasonable assumption as there is lots of evidence around us that death does
occur.
One problem with this model, is that time extends out indefinitely.
Because it is infinite, there is no chance of us experiencing life.
In order to fix this, we have to say that existence started at a particular point in
time, let’s call that -a, and existence will also end at a particular point in time,
let’s call that z. Mathematically speaking, this works out.
We can calculate the probability of your life to be a finite, non-zero number.
If you live x number of years, then the probability of your life in this model is equal to x divided
by ‘a’ plus z, which will equal a number that is greater than zero.
Depending on the total length of existence as we know it, this number might be infinitesimally
small, but it is certainly greater than zero.
But for this model to work, we have to assume than nothing came before ‘a’, and nothing
will come after z.
Current scientific literature would tell us that ‘a’ represents the Big Bang and z
potentially represents the Big Crunch.
It’s a model that works well based on current scientific observations, but it still leaves
us with a big overarching question — What caused the Big Bang?
To say that time and space just came into existence from nothingness at a single point
in the past doesn’t make any sense to me.
That’s not to say that the Big Bang model is wrong, just that there must be something
that caused it, or came before it.
For that reasoning alone, I think we have to keep a timeline that extends out to infinity.
The second solution involves the length of your life.
This blip will not go on forever, at least, that’s what we are led to believe.
The very fact that you are watching this video means that you are not dead.
If you’re not dead, then we should suppose there’s a tiny possibility that death doesn’t
exist.
Unless you’ve personally experienced death firsthand, then your mortality is still only
an assumption.
We could therefore extend the right hand side of your life out to infinity.
Similarly, we should also extend the left hand side out to infinity.
That is, your birth is also only an assumption.
You’re relying on other people’s information, and to some extent, your own memory, as evidence
that you were born on a particular day.
But none of that is verifiable in that perceptions can be deceiving.
As far as you know, today was exactly the same day as yesterday.
You have memories of yesterday being different, but those memories could be planted.
You could try asking somebody about yesterday, but that person might not be real.
There’s no way to prove anything apart from your own existence (see my video on Solipsism).
If this model were true, you would be a god, so let’s call it the God Hypothesis.
You were never born, and you will never die.
Everything that you experience is either your own creation, or the creation of other gods.
Perhaps experiences only exist in order to amuse you (or perhaps, to punish you).
I’m not here to explain the motivation of these eternal beings — I’m just offering
this as one potential solution.
I don’t necessarily have much faith in this model, but it is one explanation.
So what’s the third option?
How can we fix this model where we live for a finite number of years on an infinitely
long timeline?
The only other way that I can think of, is to add more lives.
That is, before you were born, you experienced an infinite number of lives of various lengths.
What you are experiencing now is your current life.
This phenomenon is not a new idea and is known as reincarnation.
It is the central tenet in religions such as Buddhism, and Hinduism and was also a belief
held by some of the great philosophers such as Socrates and Plato.
Assuming that when we are not alive, we don’t experience anything (even time itself would
be nothing to us), then these gaps would go by in an instant.
Or, it could be that these gaps don’t exist at all.
Either way, existence is just an eternal state of continuous lives or experiences.
Just as a note, a life doesn’t necessarily represent a human life.
It may be a fish, or an insect, or some kind of alien life form, or maybe even a plant.
Basically, any other living thing that can experience the world around it, however simple
that experience may be.
We could only assume that this cycle continues on after your current life.
Anyway, they’re the three solutions to my conundrum: A Finite Universe; The God Hypothesis;
or Reincarnation.
In a finite universe, existence has a definite start and end.
The only issue I have with this is that one could always ask, “What came before the
Big Bang?”, or, “What comes after the Big Crunch (or whatever)?”.
They’re fair questions, but ultimately, unanswerable.
Consequently, this model doesn’t get me any closer to an answer.
The God Hypothesis proposes that we have an eternal existence.
Whether or not other beings exist is unanswerable.
I can only say definitively that I exist.
Whether or not you exist, I cannot know.
And the final solution is Reincarnation.
Actually, reincarnation and the God Hypothesis are essentially the same thing.
I’m forever existing.
Whether or not I take on different forms, who’s to know?
But one thing that I have discovered from my recent thoughts on life and death, is that
I don’t see non-existence as a possibility.
If eternal oblivion was an option, then by mathematics alone, I would certainly be experiencing
it right now (or not experiencing — however you wish to phrase it).
The very fact that I am experiencing anything, means that I have experienced things prior
to this life, and I will continue to experience things after this life.
Or my existence is simply a continuous stream of experiences.
And if I do happen to be wrong, it’s of no consequence anyway.
I’d like to finish with a quote from French philosopher René Descartes,
“But I have convinced myself that there is absolutely nothing in the world, no sky,
no earth, no minds, no bodies.
Does it now follow that I, too, do not exist?
No.
If I convinced myself of something [or thought anything at all], then I certainly existed.
But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who deliberately and constantly deceives
me.
In that case, I, too, undoubtedly exist, if he deceives me; and let him deceive me as
much as he can, he will never bring it about that I am nothing, so long as I think that
I am something.
So, after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that the proposition,
I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my
mind.”
If you do exist, thank you for watching.