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Highly recommended for those who appreciate old music: Marco Beasley, l'Arpeggiata: Stefano Landi - Passacaglia della vita[^]
I've found a translation of they lyrics - I don't know how faithful it is, but at least it gives an approximate idea. The song is beautiful even if you don't understand the words:
The Passacaglia of Life
Oh how wrong you are
to think that the years
will never end.
We must die.
Life is a dream,
that seems so sweet,
but joy is all too brief.
We must die.
Of no avail is medicine,
of no use is quinine,
we cannot be cured.
We must die.
Worthless are lamentations,
threats, bravado
produced by our courage.
We must die.
No learned doctrine
can find the words
to calm this boldness
We must die.
There is no means
to untie this knot,
it is useless to flee.
We must die.
It is the same for everyone,
a wily man cannot
shield himself from the blow,
We must die.
Cruel Death
is unfaithful to all,
and shames everyone.
Die we must.
And yet, o madness
o ravings,
it seems like lying to oneself.
Die we must.
We die singing,
we die playing
the cittern, the bagpipe, yet
die we must.
We die dancing,
drinking, eating;
with this carrion,
die we must.
Youths, children,
and all men
must end in dust.
We must die.
The healthy, the sick,
the brave, the defenceless,
must all make an end,
We must die.
And when you are least
thinking of it, in your breast,
all comes to an end,
We must die.
If you do not think of this,
you have lost your senses,
you are dead and you can say:
We must die.
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Do you really care about humanity though?
Humanity may survive, but you may not.
Humanity may survive, and you may too, but you might go back to the stone age.
If you do survive, but life as we know it is forever gone, do you not wish that nuke hit you on the head too?
If you don't survive, do you really care what humanity does?
Dead people are not known for being particularly caring.
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I've considered all this at points. I tend to wax morbid.
Sander Rossel wrote: Dead people are not known for being particularly caring.
That's why I'm not so concerned about my own death. I won't miss losing my ego because I'll be dead.
But on the other hand, stories of the Mad Max sort get to me, because hope dies. That's its own fresh hell. That may be worse than death.
I don't fear living through that myself. But I do fear for humankind when there's a madman who might see nukes as his only way out.
Then again I'm prone to anxiety, and I have meds I can take for that as needed. Until this mess in eastern europe blows over I'll probably be going through them. Meh.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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MEDIOCRE! 
honey the codewitch wrote: Until this mess in eastern europe blows over I'll probably be going through them. Meh.
May take months or even years 
People and media will get tired of it though, so you won't read about it as much and stop worrying as much by extension.
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Sander Rossel wrote: media will get tired of it though
Only when it no longer brings eyeballs, which means a drop in advertising revenue. Then they'll move onto something else. Case in point: COVID. The number of daily stories have dropped faster than the number of cases.
Not being cynical. That's how it works.
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The news website I usually read already went from a dedicated front page section to just some articles between all the other articles.
COVID is still only a foot note.
Number of cases are quickly rising though (but the number of hospitalizations are not) 
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There was a line in a TV show last night - "The only thing worse than no hope is false hope".
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The past is a cancelled check. The future is unknowable.
Worrying about either one is futile, a waste of time.
All you can do is deal with what is happening right now.
Can't get my wife to believe this. She makes herself miserable worrying about both.
Que Sera, Sera.
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Quote: Can't get my wife to believe this
Same here.
Most don't get it. Worth it to "preach the gospel" though. The "aha" moment can be liberating.
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Aliens 
You boast about things that didn't happen. Also, we persist for a little time, if you know your history.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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honey the codewitch wrote: they've been wrong
But they are less and less wrong. We have been damn lucky a few times already, and while the time goes, we have more deadly/effective way to end it all, which all require lesser people to initiate them, and since there are more and more people on the planet, it makes it even more probable to happen.
I won't lie to you : the odds are not in our favour.
Anyway, if termination of any sort comes, there is no reason to worry anymore. If it does not come, there is no reason to worry either. So overall, there is no reason to worry
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The only certainty is death and that applies to our world, not just our bodies. I know of nothing in this universe which is in stasis - everything is either growing or dying. Just as we will die, so will our countries, our civilisations, our cultures, even our species and our world.
The fact that everything is as ephemeral as a sunset only adds to its beauty.
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I agree with you. We persist. Until we don't...
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I read an article recently (pretty sure it was linked in the CP Daily News) about rethinking our premise that human civilization has taken a mostly linear progression toward our current civilization. There is just too much evidence of lost technologies to continue with that premise.
But of course, you are right: we survived, the human race. And who's to know where the former upward paths would have led? Would we have been better off if there'd been no cataclysm to wipe out those ancient, advanced civilizations?
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Ah, lets be realistic.
Lets use astrological type timeframes.
1) We don't matter to the cosmos
2) We weren't here for the big bang
3) We won't be here for the big collapse
4) 99.9% of all humans that ever existed... Nobody knows about, not even us!
5) If we are lucky, we will evolve and survive over time, reptiles survived
Heck, recent research is showing that even what we think of as "real" is an illusion to keep us eating/procreating. Because WHEN we collectively stop doing EITHER or BOTH of those things as a species, it's pretty much over... (Hence we gain pleasure from both activities)
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It's 42.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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We did by accident hire a youngster that didn't even know that. We have tightened up the process since - If you show up to the interview without a towel it's a no-go!
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lmoelleb wrote: If you show up to the interview without a towel it's a no-go!
I assume that the position requires lots of travel, which is not reimbursed.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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They will certainly go on a very long travel if they try to outperform Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings when there are team events.
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That's just the answer! The important thing is the question!
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"What is 6 by 9?"
*hides*
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Certainly not 42 ...
But if you go to the source, you will see that they are still working on finding the question, and they expect it to take some time.
I suspect that at least half of those referring to '42' never knew the source. (Just like people refer to Big Brother and Newspeak without really knowing what it is about.)
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"What is 6 by 9?" was the question to the ultimate answer. It was broken, because the earth (a giant organic computer, commissioned, built and operated by mice) was broken.
It's from the book(s)
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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In base 13, 6 x 9 = 42. Perhaps Douglas Adams was trying to tell the triskaidekaphobiacs something...
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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