N

And — niki wonoto

Life is a vast sandbox RPG with an infinite 'world map'
Your whole life is spent gaining experience points, completing challenges and trying to get as close to 100% completion, realising 100% is impossible because of certainly in-game one off choices and therefore must decide what the closet to 100% completion is to you this time you play. There are Easter eggs, bonus levels that both affect the outcome of the game and those that don't, and ultimately at the end of the game you die, and all this points are lost.
Maybe you respawn in a way that some level of attainment is important, maybe its a one time around map, but either it doesn't matter, cos the new game isn't based on any of your 'save points', a new character would play the same game a new way from an infinite amount of start points, story arcs etc...
This means life it pointless, yet this pointlessness is the point, the aim of the game is only to play the game, you decide right and wrong, sometimes a group can agree on these ideas and thus create groups and scoieites and civilisations, but it all boils down to each person in that group choosing that similar path for their game.
I also define 'self' or 'I' as a continuous chain of 'save points' or 'continuous psychological states'.
I am not referencing some kind of destiny here, just the acceptance that sometimes one can create a isolated 'fate' where one keystone choice will inevitably lead to an outcome unless certain other choices are made.

Everything is pointless, so this means everything (and I mean everything) has personal value in it is your choice how to interact with it.

There is no soul. Not as a whole.
There is an life-energy, found in all living things, there is a There is a progressive state of memory and physiological states that together create 'self' or 'I'. This excludes plants.
There is intelligence (mental and emotional) and sensory perceptivness also found in all living things to varying degrees.
All three of these together are necessary for life, however remove either statement 2 or 3 and you do not necessarily negate statement one.
The closest to a soul I can think of is this life energy that I mention, but it is not a personal energy that constitutes you. How could it, it is energy, it could just have well randomly been light, gravity or sound, but the randomness of the universe meant that. energy in the form of 'life energy'.

The shock would kill you before you had a chance to forget the pain, this is shown by early attempts of surgery and early experiments with anesthesia.
In order to survive the pain you have to move away from the conscious realm that the pain occurs as it were hence opiates and synthetic compounds

None of this would matter, because obviously if you were in a utopia, you would need to know exactly what it is you need to know to know you are in a utopia (or not, if that's part of what makes it a utopia). I am talking THE perfect world for each and every individual.
But you see, the point is we are not living in a Utopia and therefore, why is bringing more people into a non-utopian world worth it? Even if a real utopia cannot be played, this doesn't negate that indeed, this world is not it and does not need to be played in the first place. — schopenhauer1

I am not sure I understand the relevance to your point?

1) We are not, by your admission, in a Utopia.
2)To know you are in Utopia you must know what is missing (for example, suffering)to know it is Utopia.
3)To know it is missing is to know it exists, and to even comprehend suffering is opposed to the idea f Utopia.
4) I agree that one could fashion their own personal Utopia, and stated as much.
5) What is the point of living in a non-utopia?: There is no point, but also no apparent choice for any alternative, therefore the point is to see how far you can go before you die.
6)Bringing more people in, by which I assume you mean reproduction, is a choice, one that forms the vast network of choices and 'paths' a 'player' my choose.
7)Why would you even want to live in a Utopia if everything was perfect as it was, why you need to bring more people in, they might ruin it? If they were meant to part of Utopia they would already be there?

Just a helpful suggestion- if you click and drag a text and then let go, you will see a quote button appear. Click the button and it will automatically quote the text you highlighted. When you post your comment, there will be a notification for the poster you quoted so that they can see that someone responded to them. When they quote you, you will also see a notification. This allows for easy viewing of who has responded. — schopenhauer1

Thanks :)

I have been spending a lot of time getting to understand my ideas, and welcome any and all challenges and questions, in the spirit of shared experience rather than trying to tear each others perceptions of reality down.

I firstly question the paradox that is a Utopia. How would one know they are existing within Utopia, without experiencing non-utopian life, in order to understand what Utopia is.
Therefore one can exist within a percieved personal Utopian sphere, wherein other people may not consider it to match their idea of Utopia.
This personal utopian sphere fits is also impermenant and in constant flux.

So perhaps my initial theory was too reductive.
I use the open-world RPG concept for a simple, ready to understand model. I am not suggesting we are in a simulation, only that reality and life are similar to the ideas in these expansive RPGs.

I do not suppose that the idea of 100% is attainable (at least in one life-time), but if I understand the main thought behind your question
I do not suppose that I am alone in experience, nor that people in my life are just 'characters', but in fact we are all 'player/characters'.

Again 'game' was a poor word choice perhaps. What I was trying to drive at was there may be a point or an actual 'root story' to life, as in video games I tried to compare to, however we can not know if we are following the 'correct path' to it.
However, lets say I spend my whole life getting rich. If succeed, on my death it wont matter. I may not succeed and you may call that a waste. But as with any life in this reality the time-line is linear so the only real terms of the 'game' are: Start, Play, Finish.
Death is end of your 'go', but death is not an acceptable aim for the 'game' Pre-mature death for instance would end the game, but not without forfeiting future experiences and old-age death is not a static point in a timeline as birth is, since 'old age' has been pushed back from say dying at 80 being considered very old, to 110 being very old but not unusual in some places.

I am not claiming this way of looking at life is flawless, and I hope through discussion it could be moulded, and improved, but by living this way I am freer and happier.

I posted this;
Life is a vast sandbox rgp with an infinite 'world map'
Your whole life is spent gaining experience points, completing challenges and trying to get as close to 100% completion, realising 100% is impossible because of certainly in-game one off choices and therefore must decide what the closet to 100% completion is to you this time you play. There are Easter eggs, bonus levels that both affect the outcome of the game and those that don't, and ultimately at the end of the game you die, and all this points are lost.
Maybe you respawn in a way that some level of attainment is important, maybe its a one time around map, but either it doesn't matter, cos the new game isn't based on any of your 'save points', a new character would play the same game a new way from an infinite amount of start points, story arcs etc...
This means life it pointless, yet this pointlessness is the point, the aim of the game is only to play the game, you decide right and wrong, sometimes a group can agree on these ideas and thus create groups and scoieites and civilisations, but it all boils down to each person in that group choosing that similar path for their game.
I am not referencing some kind of destiny here, just the acceptance that sometimes one can create a isolated 'fate' where one keystone choice will inevitably lead to an outcome unless certain other choices are made.
(I am also not talking literally, as in I am not referring to this dea that we live in a (or somebody's?) simulation, that is a different idea, my sandbox rpg is metaphorical.)
thoughts?

I got depressed, questioned everything, decided to get on the 'western traditions have failed me, I'll go to the spiritual east' bandwagon. Realised I didn't know anything about Western philosophy. Realised I knew nothing about Eastern philosophy. As I started to learn from audible and the great courses audio books found myself finely balancing between loving this new way of thinking and experiencing life and depression...
And then I figured f*** it, started studying philosophy, religion and ethics at the open University, and making my existentialism my hobby.
Now even my bad days are just 'a personal thought experiment'
I hate that doing philosophy has made me think.
I love that doing philosophy had made me think.
I can't imagine life now without doing philosophy.
I may be wrong about a lot things, but I always try to think about why I think things and what it means to think that way. In this way I feel like a 'good' person.

I also realised that I never really answered the original post...
If I am right, then you already live, and that is the reason, to 'play' your 'character arc' until it is concluded, and also trying to 'complete' the 'game'.

Life is a vast sandbox rgp with an infinite 'world map'
Your whole life is spent gaining experience points, completing challenges and trying to get as close to 100% completion, realising 100% is impossible because of certainly in-game one off choices and therefore must decide what the closet to 100% completion is to you this time you play. There are Easter eggs, bonus levels that both affect the outcome of the game and those that don't, and ultimately at the end of the game you die, and all this points are lost.
Maybe you respawn in a way that some level of attainment is important, maybe its a one time around map, but either it doesn't matter, cos the new game isn't based on any of your 'save points', a new character would play the same game a new way from an infinite amount of start points, story arcs etc...
This means life it pointless, yet this pointlessness is the point, the aim of the game is only to play the game, you decide right and wrong, sometimes a group can agree on these ideas and thus create groups and scoieites and civilisations, but it all boils down to each person in that group choosing that similar path for their game.
I am not referencing some kind of destiny here, just the acceptance that sometimes one can create a isolated 'fate' where one keystone choice will inevitably lead to an outcome unless certain other choices are made.
(I am also not talking literally, as in I am not referring to this dea that we live in a (or somebody's?) simulation, that is a different idea, my sandbox rpg is metaphorical.)

I am still not entirely sure why it needs to be anybody else's business what happens in another persons bedroom or pants.
We are all well-versed in the biological method of reproduction. That is a sperm cell and an ovum cell join, science stuff happens, 9 months later comes the bouncing bundle.
To quote Marcus Aurelius;

And in sexual intercourse that it is no more than the friction of a membrane and a spurt of mucus ejected.

. Well, we all have membranes, and we can all spurt mucus.
Instead of saying 'Oh that's Emma. Emma likes to be called as Steve, have sex with some girls and
some boys.', it would be literally as easy to say 'Hey Steve!'
Instead of worrying about whether clothes in the store are for people with a penis or people with vagina, why not worry about whether you like the colour or the cut and the way it looks on you and the way it makes you feel.
If you are at a point in life where you want to reproduce. Options exist, either adopt/foster. Surrogacy, IVF etc.
If someone finds a way to be happy, let them. If two people find a way to make each other happy let them. If three people find a way to make each other happy who cares, they're happy. I am happy. You should be happy.
To put it simply a side-effect of our 'scientific evolution' means that there are no physical barriers to each person on earth simply being themselves and being happy. The only obstacles to this are 'social' ones.

This is a subject on which I truly obsess. You are not alone, everyday I agonize over how I am perceived by other people. I consider how I speak, look, act...everything. I know this sounds more narcissistic than anything, but it is more a curiosity that frequently turns to anxiety.
I begin to question the relevance of things I cannot control. Like you say

7,7 billion ways of seeing and experiencing the world

include 7.7 billion ways of perceiving a version 'me'.
I can often 'over-read' into what people say or what I think they're thinking.
I have however recently taken up a meditation practice, and turning it into a 'thought game';
I challenge my imagination to either visualize how somebody I can physically see is experiencing life and thoughts,
how a person (real or fictitious) does/did the same,
and finally sometimes I pick a memory as it passes through my natural train of thought, focus on every individual detail I can remember and create a 'vision' of it in my minds eye that I can enter in a kind of 'POV' capacity.
It reminds me that, if nothing else, I have created a small reality as I go. Memory and imagination serve to this purpose.
I read a fantastic quote recently that really struck me;

The universe is an open end sandbox RPG. There's no end goal. You can only get achievements. Some of them include making people happy

I am starting to believe there is no point to life, the universe, reality or existence outside of the sheer randomness and 'accidental-ness' of it all.
And whilst this sounds hopeless and depressing, I recognize and reflect on the idea that we can give our own lives meaning, and other people can give our lives meaning too.

Sure when we die it will be over, and, in the grand scheme of things, meaningless. But it was a fun play in the sandbox.