.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

[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.