
The Egg - pavs
http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
======
thegrossman
Reminds me of the story Feynman tells about Wheeler, who calls him up one day
and tries to convince him that there is only one electron in the entire
universe.

This single electron is bouncing forward and background through time
endlessly, creating the illusion of a multitude of particles (electrons when
going forward in time, and positrons when traveling back):

"I received a telephone call one day at the graduate college at Princeton from
Professor Wheeler, in which he said, 'Feynman, I know why all electrons have
the same charge and the same mass' 'Why?' 'Because, they are all the same
electron!'"

[From
[http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/fe...](http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-
lecture.html)]

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hugh3
Might make an alright Twilight Zone episode, if the exposition were dragged
out a bit more.

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ju2tin
Since the population of Earth is rapidly increasing, this poor guy is unlikely
to ever live through all possible lives and level up.

~~~
quadhome
Humanity is finite.

And we'll end far, far before the heat death of the universe.

~~~
maushu
You are correct. Humanity will end far before the universe. It will not be
call humanity anymore.

~~~
istari
fallout? ejecta?

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maeon3
Humans can't live without the sun. In some way, the sun is an integral part of
what all life is. If you take away the sun, you take away the life of the
individual human. All humans share this one body part (the sun) so in some way
all humans share their existence. Kind of like sharing a kidney.

What happens when humans start fooling around melding minds, utilizing
software to augment our minds and building strong AI that is a vast
improvement over our minds and bodies? I suppose that is where the entity is
investigating different ways to exist.

~~~
itistoday
The Buddhists and Hindus thought of this thousands of years ago, but they went
into much greater depth and came to the realization that humans (and anything
else) can't live (exist) without anything else. It is perfectly OK to say that
the universe (and you) depends on just a single grain of sand (and vice
versa).

See:

[https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtya...](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Prat%C4%ABtyasamutp%C4%81da)

Though the wiki doesn't do a very good job discussing the topic. See also the
section there "Madhyamaka and Pratityasamutpada" which goes a bit further in
depth, but I recommend outside reading as well if you're interested.

What's interesting about this, is that when you put it that way some people
are put off and call it "mysticism", when actually it is very precise and
scientific, and in fact is simply another way of stating the First Law of
thermodynamics.

~~~
Ardit20
I think that I and the universe can do just fine without that single grain of
sand :)

~~~
itistoday
I assure you, your existence depends on that grain of sand.

You're welcome to disagree, similarly as a child would insist on the existence
of Santa Claus or a Christian on the existence of a paternal God-head.

Though that's not a perfect analogy, as proving either of those postulates
wrong is impossible, and here we have a situation where there actually is
strong evidence for the existence of sand granules (I hope you'll agree).

So in this case it actually is rather easy to see if you're correct. If you
can "do just fine without it" then go and erase it out of existence. Come back
when you are through and you'll have proven me wrong. :-)

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maxharris
Impossible.

~~~
itistoday
You know, this little story is very close to the truth actually. Hi me!

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Hey! You wrote this story! So did the guy posting it. Seems a little
hypocritical, him complaining about losing the byline - who cares? Its all
him.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Ouch! Ok, I'll stop trying to be funny.

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targz
What's with the buddhist bent YC? What does it have to do with hacking or
business? I realize intelligent minds are attracted to buddhism and hinduism,
but it's still pretty off topic, in addition to the idea of reincarnation
being offensive to the scientifically inclined. At least feed the hackers some
serious philosophy. We're smarter than this.

~~~
pavs
I am an atheist (not the annoying kind) and I feel that this short story has
an interesting philosophical perspective if you can get past the literal
interpretation of "god" and "reincarnation".

As to what is On topic. From <http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

"Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than
hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might
be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

56 (as of now) people thinks this gratifies intellectual curiosity.

