Who knew the 6.15 Omega Quests… (Spoilers)

[Lyth]

That's not what the Ea are saying, though. Let's have a closer look.

'If you understand this - understand aught of our tale - you will abandon your quest for knowledge. Ignorance is truly bliss. If you would cling to your illusory happiness, remain primitive and pure. It is the only way.'

The Ea believe that if they hadn't have discovered the truth, they could have been happy. The central ideal around which they built their society on was the pursuit of knowledge. Their despair was that their ideal was meaningless.

And Y'shtola's counterpoint to that is:

'As you yourself said, the subject matter is beyond my comprehension. And that, I accept, is true. I do not possess the knowledge to prove or disprove your conclusion. In my mortal years, I doubt that I could even approach the wisdom of the Ea. But of one thing I am absolutely certain: I would not be happier in ignorance.

The most important lesson I've learned... is that learning isn't simply passing one's eyes over words. Nay... 'tis when understood for oneself that knowledge attains its true value. And that is what has sustained me. Driven me onward in joy and wonder, in anger and sorrow. The universe may end, and may all be for naught. But I will live as I always have.

I will always seek out new knowledge. And no conclusion of yours, no matter how grim, can dampen my desire.'

And this latter point personally resonates with me.

I find it strange that you'd hold an opinion at all about what any of my beliefs are. Existentialism and Nihilism do force us to confront some interesting questions and assumptions about our belief systems. But you can always find the answers for yourself.

[LordGiggles]

[I]'As you yourself said, the subject matter is beyond my comprehension. And that, I accept, is true. I do not possess the knowledge to prove or disprove your conclusion. In my mortal years, I doubt that I could even approach the wisdom of the Ea. But of one thing I am absolutely certain: I would not be happier in ignorance.

The most important lesson I've learned... is that learning isn't simply passing one's eyes over words. Nay... 'tis when understood for oneself that knowledge attains its true value. And that is what has sustained me. Driven me onward in joy and wonder, in anger and sorrow. The universe may end, and may all be for naught. But I will live as I always have.

Yes, and this does not work as a counter, because they have already spent almost certainly a huge, huge amount of time living as they always had, driving onwards to find out more about the universe and reality. It's the entire reason they're in the state they are, they didn't just pop into reality with an understanding of the universe so incredibly more advanced than any other species we see or even hear of.

Y'shtola saying that she's just going to keep being curious anyway is really easy to say when she'll almost certainly be dead within the next century, and has no actual reason to care about the end of the universe. Like she's what, 30? Forgive me if I don't think "well I still want to know stuff though" is a particularly compelling argument against a race of beings that already know more than anyone we've seen, and that will live on forever.

She's really just not even trying to understand the difference between the sundered and the Ea, despite saying she knows she'll never come even close to their wisdom.

"The universe may end, and may all be for naught." has an extremely different impact when you will personally exist and live on beyond the end of the universe, compared to a situation where you could multiply your expected lifespan by a million and still never come close to seeing it. There's just not really much of an argument in this quote at all, it's barely more than a "nuh uh".

I find it strange that you'd hold an opinion at all about what any of my beliefs are. Existentialism and Nihilism do force us to confront some interesting questions and assumptions about our belief systems. But you can always find the answers for yourself.

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt, that you don't actually think a belief we've seen people hold across hundreds and hundreds of years and that is an incredibly influential one in any discussion of existential topics, is somehow not sustainable. It's not really something that is influenced by how people feel about it, it's either correct or it is not (of course nihilism isn't a single claim or argument, but I'm being reductionist for etiquette reasons). With regards to existential nihilism in particular, life either has an intrinsic meaning or it doesn't. Finding your own reason to go on doesn't go against any of this really.