While exploring what I might do if I was given a year to live, I was thinking quite a lot about the value of various aspects of my life and whether what I have gathered is valuable at all. While open to the possibility, I do not subscribe to an afterlife, especially one where our accomplishments and failures in this life affect the next.
The reason being is that in my opinion, that is far to random for the universe considering there is no evidence of an afterlife at all, it is faith based. While some see that as the point, I do not consider nature to be so haphazard. Instead, I take the approach that what I do on this earth is bound to this earth, whether I exist in it or not.
What this means is that what I accomplish, earn and value here, I cannot take with me past the last breath, so what does this mean for things that I value, the work I do and the connections I hold during my lifetime?
We all work for results of some kind, whether it is in a paid position or not. Sometimes, the only result we are looking for is that someone sees us in a certain light and believes we are a certain way, we work for status. Some want to be remembered past their death favorably, and they will manipulate in life in order to do so - which is why there are so many skeletons locked away in cupboards. While status is useless from strangers, what my daughter thinks of me and the kind of person her father was could have a profound effect on her life - but, the status I hold in her eyes will be built upon how I interact with her and of course, those she interacts with also. If I died today, would my wife paint a pretty picture of me in the years to come?
Is my status valuable for the life of my daughter after my passing?
I think this is one of the aspects of value that needs to be considered and perhaps it needs to be separated out between what has value to me whilst alive, and what will continue to have value past my death. Past death, the things that have explicit value are the material things, the assets that I leave behind. But there are also the immaterial, the relationships that remain even though the bond has been broken.
We all have secret relationships with everyone we know that is built on the internal conversations we have, even if the words are never spoken. We think and feel things about people by imagining scenarios that never happened or through an imperfect memory. We imagine lives with people who are no longer with us, hold conversations and play each role assuming we are accurate in the portrayal. After I pass, the bonds I have made will live on, even if it is an occasional thought back to a moment shared decades ago.
Even when we talk about value and what is valuable, the definition is blurry and influenced by opinion, preference and programming. Through new experiences what we value today could be immediately replaced by a new set tomorrow, as often happens through the catalyst of a life threatening situation. A heart attack makes us reevaluate what is important, the loss of a loved one to cancer can do the same - or seeing a family decapitated by sword in the town square for attempting to save lives - as my father saw.
Some value wealth over individual, but does that same hierarchy hold through all experience? If with a hypothetical technology a person could truly feel what it is like to be on the receiving end of torture, racism and discrimination - would their perceptions of the world change, their behaviors? Are the ideals we fight to hold onto in life carry the same meaning in death?
Is hate and anger valuable?
If at the time of death we could carry with us one feeling for the rest of eternity - wouldn't the feeling of love be the most widely chosen? Then why do we carry so much anger in life, why do we seek out conflict after conflict and create so many enemies and hold onto so much negative baggage?
Talk about left holding the bag.
When it comes to value there are practical considerations, there is the economic sense, the financial stability and the access to potential and possibility that it can afford. But, monetary economics is a concept alone and what we work toward is a tokenized proxy for access to community and the goods and services that were once shared by a tribe. At any point, the system can fail completely and what held value yesterday is valueless today.
I think that what is valuable for humanity are the things that add capabilities to the future and those who will live it. Increased possibility, increased health - 'less suffering.
This is not an easy path as that future is often in conflict with the present where what makes us feel good today is counterproductive for generation of value for tomorrow. Conservation of resources when we are wired to consume and incentivized economically to increase consumption for profit. Their has to be a greater benefit in reduction of consumption than what is felt by its increase. We are wired and encouraged to maximize in a world of limited resource and as a result, it will always lead to competition, conflict and eventually, violence. Suffering.
One of my hopes for blockchains and tokenization is that it will lead us down a path of reevaluation of what we as humans consider valuable at all. We have been trained that it must be material, even though it leads to pain and heartache to acquire and, we can never take it with us. What is valuable is limited, but it doesn't have to be limited to the physical dimension. What is interesting is that while we see money as material, the actual value of it is in the concept, the perception of it. We can reimagine and shift to the new world, the near unbounded digital lands and apply the same concept.
I believe that the mid-future is going to see this move happenas much of what we work toward and therefore what provides us the earning for consumption, is replaced by machines of various kinds. It doesn't take much to destroy an economy, just imagine what a 10% reduction in consumption would do in a chain reaction effect.
But, none of this really answers the question and that could be because what is valuable to one is valueless to another, at least in life. we all do what we think is important, we invest our time and energy into what we value and attempt to increase our resources so as to hold a little more potential. But past our death, how much of what we have done in life still holds that value, and how much was just a flight of fancy, the fantastical journey of the imagination in belief?
Is what we are doing as a global community now going to be a gift for the future that keeps on giving, or a cost that keeps accruing?
As individuals, we will all come and go - but at least some of our successes and failures will live on past us to add value to the world, even if it is never in our account. Every action we make has a cost, which means it holds a value.
We like to keep two sets of books.
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
