.08. [voice] i guess i don't see the point in crying over a dead rabbit

[tangentdarko]

I don't get it. Why should I feel bad when an inmate here dies or leaves? We're all dead anyway and most of them come back. We don't have meaningful lives and it's not like we were good people. I mean, I'm sorry, don't get me wrong.. I like some of the inmates here, but half of them are lost in ignorance.. and ignorance is bliss, so I guess I would be happy if I were them too. But why should I care if they leave? I guess I just don't see the point in crying over a dead inmate when they probably didn't even fear dying anyway.

[Private to Tommy]
I don't want to keep taking my pills.

Comments

[empirical_data]

We feel bad because there was untapped potential. Because someone did something wrong in their past, it does not mean that they cannot create a better future. If they have been brought here, then that person had the capacity to improve on the world around them.

You cry because they became a part of your life, you become used to them, and whether or not they were "good people", they were individuals that you wanted to have as a part of your life.

[tangentdarko.livejournal.com]

But you can't just change who you are. Everyone follows a very set path in God's channel and no one that's killed the people that a lot of the inmates have is going to turn around and redeem themselves. I mean, maybe they could achieve redemption in the eyes of.. of the Admiral or whoever, but not to themselves. Not enough to make their lives worth living.

What does it matter when everyone dies alone anyway?

[empirical_data]

Incorrect. There are multiple courses that history can take, resulting in divergent existences called "quantum realities" that can be observed through various deep space conditions and anomalies. And to "redeem" themselves, they merely have to learn to redirect whatever destructive energy they have into endeavors that are more constructive.

A very wise woman once said, "Death is that state in which one only exists in the memory of others, which is why it is not an end. No goodbyes, just good memories." As you protest that an individual has passed has had no meaning, the fact that someone has fond memories of this individual is in direct contradiction and immediately invalidates this assertion.

[tangentdarko.livejournal.com]

Tangent universes. But they all have to come back together or else the world can't continue on its normal path. If I kill someone and then apologize and feel bad for killing them.. it doesn't change that they're dead. How is that redeeming?

But I have the memories whether they leave or not. So I shouldn't have to care about it, right?

[empirical_data]

They do not. Unstable universes will unravel without suitable anchor points, usually because of an overlapping paradox. However a quantum reality exists independently without paradox, much as a beam of light would be split into two different directions. It does not turn back upon itself and concludes in its own way.

The memories are what make you care. If you were fond of someone, and their company, you should feel a detrimental effect from their absence. Those upset by the loss of an inmate feel their absence. They will make no new memories with them, they will no longer draw comfort from their presence. Redemption is not undoing what ill you have done; it is becoming a better, wiser person in spite of it.

[tangentdarko.livejournal.com]

How do you know?

I get that, but like.. we still don't know if they're going off to a better place. What if I'm being selfish by wanting them back?

That's not redemption. That's just.. growing or whatever. That doesn't redeem you.

[empirical_data]

Because I have encountered it, and others have, in more than one variation. In my time there are significant records pertaining to alternate histories.

To be redeemed is to make amends for what you have done. That is not returning lives that you have taken, nor contradicting any other event that was initiated. The warden decides when amends have been met, and that varies from individual to individual.

As for life after death... it is possible. Though mourning is not about the deceased, it is about what they have left behind. And I believe any individual would want their friends to care about them enough to miss their presence.

[tangentdarko.livejournal.com]

Really? Do you have any records or anything that I could read?

Maybe that's redemption on the Barge or whatever, but I'm saying it's not possible to be redeemed for real. For a person to actually feel like they're genuinely redeemed.

I guess.

[empirical_data]

Guilt I do understand. I still feel it for trespasses I engaged in when I was not even in control of my own actions. Though I was using the external concept of redemption.

Possibly. Perhaps I should simply request that the Admiral add a section of Starfleet literature to the library. I do have my own encounters that I can draw from, as well.

[tangentdarko.livejournal.com]

I'd like to believe it's possible, but I just.. I've just never seen any proof, so I just don't debate it anymore. It's absurd.

That would be really cool if you could do that.