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Powers to the practical

What if life had a save/load button? Just one save file. You can save and load anytime you’d like, but here’s the catch: every change is reverted, including your own memory. Would anything change? Seriously, you wouldn’t know how many times you’ve reset, you wouldn’t know the outcomes, but you would know when you last saved. Saving is conscious. At the end, it’ll feel like you never did reset at all. The problem with super-power speculation is, of course, they never come true and therefore aren’t practical. But with a little introspection, you can make this one come to life.

Like maybe, I’d find something exciting and dangerous like hang gliding off a mountain, and save right before I leave. Then, if I survive, I’ll continue playing. If I don’t, I’ll reset1. But ultimately, there is no outside force playing our lives like a game. There’s no point in finishing earlier, later, or finishing at all. Instead, consider the practical benefits of such thinking.

See, it’s rare that making a decision is as simple as a yes or no. Small act, big deal, so we should take full advantage when such an opportunity presents itself. Time spent idle is time well spent. Opportunities wasted is cost. Under such thinking, this truth is more readily obvious when we need it the most. Pretend you really could go back and try again, whenever you’d like, and you lose both the anxiety associated with time, and the upsetting investment associated with quick-action yes-no opportunities. Think just enough, and this superpower could be yours.

  1. To avoid getting stuck in a loop of oblivious dying and resetting, I’ll back down immediately if a random number lands with a 1 in twenty probability. ↩︎

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Anonymous
Sun, 26 Nov 2023 14:18:14 GMT

зчнз

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Fri, 08 Nov 2024 01:17:03 GMT