I came up with similar thoughts after losing someone I loved. Helped immensely to think of time as a dimension. Even though I'm trapped on a one way course, those previous moments still exist. Even though the person I loved is dead and I'll never talk to her again, those moments of her life will always exist. As far as I know, nothing can ever erase it.

There will always be a place in the universe where she's alive and happy. A place that I'll probably never be able to visit but still is immensely comforting knowing it exists.

I guess that's my version of a secular afterlife. Not entirely comforting as all the moments of suffering still exist too, somewhere. But still, it means there's a permanence to even the most impermanent things.

This (that time is a dimension) is as I understand what most physicists believe today and constitutes the so-called eternalism (or "block universe") philosophy of time. According to this view, past/present/future are our (human) terms to explain what is already laid out and we're simply moving along the time access just like we move along in space (though of course only in direction).

I've become a big believer in this view. A valuable upshot of embracing eternalism is that it makes it much easier not to regret the past or worry about the future, though some believe it encourages risky behavior.

I don't think most physicists subscribe to the view that things are laid out already. I think most believe that physics is non-deterministic due to QM. Other schools of thoughts like superdeterminism does believe what you're saying but I think this is a minority view (albeit advocated by some very high profile physicists).

What is not clear to me however is whether a block universe view can still be correct even if non-determinism is true.

The way I think of the universe is: we are the universe discovering itself, gaining consciousness and trying to figure itself out. Our fears are exactly the same as the universe’s. Our curiosity and wonder, also the universe’s. RN, this universe is a child, maybe a baby, and the way it’s expanding, it’s processes and consciousness will simply be on a much different time/space scale, require less energy (cold dark universe) with better understanding of space time, meaning rn it’s already able to appreciate all of time forever and understands that the point is not to go back and change things but to appreciate all presents. So us humans, we will learn at our pace, and if we go extinct, we’ve played our part, maybe another species someplace else will be better suited to carry on our torch or a completely new and different kind of torch.

Babylon 5 had a scene about this idea:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VhD0hbGEDSU

Interesting—this is the first time I've came across someone with my own viewpoint.

I'm not certain if there's a name for it. I figure it's a form of pantheism.

For me, certainly, it's the only thing which makes sense.

It’s actually something about a billion people believe. They’re called Buddhists.

You might like the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh, which I probably misspelled.

The Hindus as well I believe. Especially within the "Vedanta" school of thought.

TIL. I'm not knowledgeable about Buddhism at all, so I'll look into this. Thanks!

I guess another word for it could be, God.

Exactly, this is my view of the whole omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence concept. God is all those bc because God = the universe = us and all of nature, including insects, rocks, water, photons, gravity. Hell, heaven, good, bad, its the judgements we make of our own decisions and the consequences we attribute to them. And this does not make the concept of religion any less powerful or relevant.

This is also how I think about things. I exist here and now. My children exist here and now. We are happy. It ends. Sure. Just like you say, an object also ends (at its borders). But that doesn’t change the fact that this moment will forever be a part of the universe.

This helps put into words my feelings toward immortality. A life without end would be as monstrous as a sculpture whose height or width never ends!

Because for most of that dimension, there won't be anyone around to consider the spans meaningful or beautiful.

Psychedelics can help with this.

I love this take. Very Vonnegut.