Poll: Which of thes do you find the most depressing/unnerving?

[Spectral Dragon]

I'm surprised no one's quoted Arthur C. Clarke yet... "Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

It's as simple as that, but I HOPE there is more advanced life than us... Just no eldritch abominations. One would be "Aww... This is the best we've got?" while the other's just "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh- Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!"

 

[Mithcha]

A) we are alone. Most depressing because it means we really are a blip. We effectively become 'the thing that should not be'. It tears us from our place in the universe, in terms of just being a piece of it and makes us... wrong. We just shouldn't be here. Unless we're simply the first life to evolve to this point, either way it's terrifying. If we're the first than I feel sorry for the poor bugger that meets us.

That said the likeliness of us being truly alone is remote, so hakuna matata.

 

[JimB]

We effectively become 'the thing that should not be.' It tears us from our place in the universe, in terms of just being a piece of it and makes us...wrong. We just shouldn't be here.

If we're alone in the universe, then the word "should" becomes meaningless in this context, because with no guiding intelligence behind creation--or rather, no personality behind creation to form opinions and judgments--clearly, everything that does exist should exist. If it shouldn't exist, it wouldn't.

 

[Mithcha]

We effectively become 'the thing that should not be.' It tears us from our place in the universe, in terms of just being a piece of it and makes us...wrong. We just shouldn't be here.

If we're alone in the universe, then the word "should" becomes meaningless in this context, because with no guiding intelligence behind creation--or rather, no personality behind creation to form opinions and judgments--clearly, everything that does exist should exist. If it shouldn't exist, it wouldn't.

I get what you're saying but I can't agree. There are 100 planets, 100 suns, 100 blackholes 100 everything else and 1 singular person who arrived entirely by accident with no precedence in the order of things, the person is a blip, it shouldn't be there. It is an accident. Intelligence or not it is wrong, an accident, a blip, it shouldn't be there.

 

[Rastien]

Gonna be honest i found none of that depressing.

Why get bummed out over stuff you have no direct control or influence over? just wasted emotions and effort imho

 

[Gizmo1990]

I have spent most of my life in a general state of indifference so where is the None option?

 

[Sidiron]

The idea that we are the pinnacle of existing lifeforms, in the entireity of the universe isn't depressing but it certainly is a worrying and unnerving prospect.
Especially if we carry on letting the same kinds of government carry on with the stupid stupid ideas that we have at the moment.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Being utterly alone is actually probably the worst one.

 

[Shinsei-J]

I don't really find any of these that bad, maybe that we as a race waste our own intelligents and we may never be able to do all we could have. That's pretty depressing.

So I'm picking cosmic horrors. It's slightly unsettling.

 

[VoEC]

The most unnerving thing would be for me if we were all alone.
Because that would mean, that there is no intelligent life in the entire universe.

(See what I did there?)

 

[MetalMagpie]

Cosmic horrors. And that's not depressing so much as just worrying...

 

[Doclector]

I voted cosmic horrors. Don't really know why, all of those are pretty bad by my view. I guess I just think the actual consequences of that possibility are far more horrifying than simply being alone, or the last/most advanced species.

I think it was the trailers for silent hill 3 that said "If you think you're scared of being alone, just wait until you find out you're not."

 

[kasperbbs]

I find none of these depressing whatsoever, we wont find out anything in my life time and i doubt that human race will ever meet any space aliens before we all kill ourselves or some other disaster kills us. But if i had to choose then it owuld be the 'forever alone' option. Because i like sci-fi.

 

[DioWallachia]

I find depressing that i cant go eating souls with my pal Cthulhu and his daughter, because my father, Azathoth, doesn't want me to wake him up yet until the time is right and some bullshit like that.

EDIT: The lack of "I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream" scenario disappointed me. Specially for inmortal machines that are omnipotent but cant do shit about their condition of being an unfeeling machine.

 

[ThePenguinKnight]

"We are alone in the universe, we always have been." Sounds rather boring.

 

[DioWallachia]

The idea that we are the pinnacle of existing lifeforms, in the entireity of the universe isn't depressing but it certainly is a worrying and unnerving prospect.
Especially if we carry on letting the same kinds of government carry on with the stupid stupid ideas that we have at the moment.

Sucks to be the ones to give a good example in life on the Universe, so much busywork isnt it?

 

[DioWallachia]

Speaking of unnerving (for humans anyway), here are my bedtime stories:

BEHOLD!! EXIT MUNDI, A COLLECTION OF END OF THE WORLD SCENARIOS!!
http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm

I love the Zoroastrian Apocalypse. Very heavy metal, if you get what i mean

 

[The Unworthy Gentleman]

That we we are the last life. It would just be depressing that after such a short period of time it came down to just Earth, it would just be a looming sense of doom that life is not going to last in the universe.

 

[JimB]

There are one hundred planets, one hundred suns, one hundred black holes, one hundred everything else, and one singular person who arrived entirely by accident with no precedence in the order of things, the person is a blip, it shouldn't be there. It is an accident.

If there is no supernatural (or, if you prefer, extranatural) will guiding the course of existence, then the only law is cause and effect. Any effect that has a cause is, therefore, right; it is the universe functioning as it ought to do. If that one person is the first of his kind, well, so what? There's a first time for everything. The first planet wasn't an accident that only became retroactively validated when a second or third or hundredth planet came into being.

 

[RedDeadFred]

While I find it very unlikely that we are alone, that is probably the most depressing option for me.
I think it's probable that we are the most advanced lifeforms in our galaxy and possibly the universe. That's also quite depressing.

My dream come true would be that the heads of Bioware were secretly ambassadors from other galactic races who have been trying to educate us on what the rest of the galaxy. That way, when the Citadel Council comes to Earth at the end of 2012 (2012 will turn out to not be the end of the world but the end of our current technological age, and the start of the mass effect physics age) to welcome us into the rest of the galaxy, there will be no First Contact War. Since gamers who have played the Mass Effect games will be the most educated on the rest of the galaxy, we will be elevated to galactic political positions and will be allowed to come live on the Citadel. I myself will turn out to have a natural talent for biotics and will be offered a position as the first human spectre. I will then meet and fall in love with Tali, Garrus will become my best friend, and we will proceed to go on many adventures throughout the galaxy.

Yes I have thought about this way too much.