Death and What Comes Next (2002)
I always wondered about the idea posed in this short story. Does the "everything that can happen does happen" theory apply to free will? If there really are infinite universes, is there a one when I'm walking a street full of people and out of nowhere we all start singing Ode to Joy in perfect unisono? Or get naked and have a massive orgy? No law of physics rules this out.
(Sorry, I'm a layman.)
That’s the beauty of Pratchett’s conception of Death… when all else fails, you’ll be met with a smile.
As far as I can see from the books, what comes next after death is mostly determined by what has gone on before. So, a bit like life, really.
It appears to me unnecessary to say much about the terrors of death. The subject has been sufficiently enlarged upon by various writers; besides, every one knows and feels for himself that life is sweet and death is bitter. However old a man may be, however broken in health, however miserable his circumstances, the thought of death is an unwelcome one. There are three principal reasons why all sensible people fear death so much:
First, because the love of life, the dread of death is inherent in human nature. Secondly, because every rational being is well aware that death is bitter, and the separation of soul and body cannot take place without inexpressible suffering. Thirdly, because no one knows whither he will go after death
There is no death. It's just an idea in awareness.
You were dead for infinity.
How can you be dead for infinity and alive now. Makes no sense.
Only explanation is it's infinite.
0 - 1 second alive is not 1 second.
It's infinite.
"Life is beautiful. Really, it is. Full of beauty and illusions. Life is great. Without it, you'd be dead."
-- Gummo
Ignoring the moral question in the story, many people are satisfied by saying "haha funny, the cat is both dead and alive" and they just move on.
Reading Pratchett for almost 30 years, it has fueled quite an interested in quantum mechanics in me, he subtly introduces QM teasers in almost every book I read. Particularly Mort.
As I dropped out of highschool, I didnt have the luck to properly study physics, but in my 30s, I my existential crisis hit, as they say, a man dies twice, and the stupid half dead cat wouldn't leave me alone. And one night the omnipotent youtube algorithm recommended Susskind's lectures to me, then Feynman, Shankar, .. it just kept going. Now I watch and re-watch them but take screenshots and send them to claude when I am confused (which is still most of the time).
If you are a layman like me and just want to know what is up with the cat, I encourage you to watch Sean Carroll's lectures (dont miss the Q&A videos) and it will for sure allow you to ask at least better questions.
I love that cat so much.
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Sean Carroll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI09kat_GeI&list=PLrxfgDEc2N...
Richard Feynman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kFOXP026eE&list=PLS3_1JNX8d... and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAnnEiAjN6U&list=PLYZ3-8b-4z...
Leonard Susskind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyX8kQ-JzHI&list=PL6i60qoDQh...
Ramamurti Shankar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2eFv7ne_Q&list=PLF366409F5...
Barton Zwiebach: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jANZxzetPaQ&list=PLUl4u3cNGP...
Carl Bender: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYNOGk3ZjFM&list=PL43B1963F2...
If you struggle with calculus, I found Herb Gross to be partucularly good
Herb Gross: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFRWDuduuSw&list=PL3B08AE665...
Of course watch 3blue1brown, alphaphoenix, styropyro etc as well
GNU Terry Pratchett
Makes good sense. If we were like Lions, every action we’d ever do would be roughly correct (can still be a mistake, but not wrong). To echo Death, you can see how I’m failing at describing this because I’m still constrained by right and wrong.
For example, a Lion committing infanticide is not immoral. By all definitions of an animal, nothing a human does is immoral.
So why are we immoral then?
I have been reading through the Discworld books in publication order, and they have been downright delightful.
I have only finished the first eleven, but thus far all of them have been fun and most of them have little nuggets of wisdom that really do invite thought into a deeper theme. Thus far my favorite has been Mort, but I also ended up really liking Sourcery as well.
I hadn’t read any Pratchett while he was still alive, I hadn’t even heard of him in fact, but given how prolific he was and the level of cleverness in his stories, I wish he was still alive.