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Re:Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in... by exit on Monday May 10, 2010 @03:42AM (#1333819)
i appreciate your answer, which i think is the best kind of answer people generally give.

but i want to ask you to consider something without any incredulity about my seriousness:

if you had not been born, you would not be bothered by not existing. and when eventually your parents die, they would no longer be bothered by not having had children.

Re:Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in... by jacquesm on Monday May 10, 2010 @06:59AM (#1334055)
> but i want to ask you to consider something without any incredulity about my seriousness:

Ok, that's fine with me.

> if you had not been born, you would not be bothered by not existing. and when eventually your parents die, they would no longer be bothered by not having had children.

That's a statement, not a question.

Re:Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in... by exit on Monday May 10, 2010 @07:26AM (#1334095)
i don't quite understand the miscommunication here. i'm asking you to consider a statement.

edit: maybe you overlooked ^"to consider" and just read "i want to ask you ^ something".

Re:Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in... by jacquesm on Monday May 10, 2010 @07:45AM (#1334114)
Ah, ok, I get it now. Ok, I've 'considered' it, now what?

It's a bit too philosophical for me, you could ask anybody to 'consider' that and they would most likely land on 'but that isn't how it happened'.

Asking someone to consider some alternate reality and what their position would have been in that alternate reality is difficult stuff, at a minimum you'd have to concede that you can't really consider any 'alternative universes' simply because this is the one we've got.

So, in this universe, I exist, I'm happy I do and my parents, even though they probably made a wrong decision or two did have two kids.

The line of reasoning you are pursuing leads to either a very empty planet or to a planet with different people, two random specimens of which could be having this exact same conversation on a nodesloc called latest.zjoiner.com.

Re:Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in... by past on Monday May 10, 2010 @07:57AM (#1334134)
Ah, the void of non-existence is certainly filled with emptiness. It's what happens to the living that matters, though. Put another way, is Schrödinger's cat alive or dead? Does it matter if you don't intend to open the box?
Re:Reddit IAMA. An ex Google programmer switched to a job in... by lionhearted on Monday May 10, 2010 @04:33AM (#1333879)
I'm really happy that Hermann and Pauline Einstein didn't feel this way.