History of Discontinuation
From Scratchpad
To return to the main page, click here.
Achievement Believers apply the term 'progress' to any human action that a.) makes other humans lives more comfortable and pleasurable or b.) adds more memes to the Meme Pyramids (often resulting in 'a' above).
But in reality, the only thing that counts as 'progress' in human history is Discontinuation; Discontinuation is the only meme added to the Meme Pyramids that actually makes things 'better' for humans (by preventing them from ever being born into a meaningless death trap). All other memes on the pyramids just created more comfort and pleasure on earth (vaccinations, television, etc.), and comfort and pleasure are negated by death in the end.
There was a certain trail of memes and events in human history that lead up to Discontinuation, however, and so those memes and events also count as 'progress' (because they were steps towards the one true progressive thing). This is a summarized list of those memes/events- The History of Discontinuation:
- The Neolithic Revolution: the invention of agriculture. Thus, early humans could settle down and make societies.
- 4,000 BCE: Civilization begins with the Sumerians. Now we have thousands of humans living together, which creates a communal brain that figures out mathematical, scientific, and technological things.
- The Rennaissance (1300s-1500s): now scientific and technological thinking begins breaking free of the Catholic Church that constrained it.
- The Scientific Revolution (1500s to 1800s): Copernicus and Galileo are among many who discover more scientific, mathematical, and technological things.
- The Enlightenment (1600s to 1700s): Isaac Newton and others figure out even more scientific things.
- Industrial Revolution (1850): with industry, humans have the ability to spread memes faster than before, as well as figure out more science than ever before.
- Evolution is discovered (late 1800s): Darwin and other scientists figure out evolution. This is the greatest achievement in human history: now, we humans understand what we are and where we came from. But the idea is incomplete...
- Late 1800s: Schopenhauer writes On the Sufferings of the World, an essay that argues the Discontinuation philosophy (though the term was not around yet)
- Early 20th century: Zapffe writes The Last Messiah and On the Tragic- two writings that argue the idea of Discontinuation (though the term was not around yet)
- Mid 20th century: WW2 causes many people to turn to Existentialism- a philosophy that was recently (for that time) given its name ('existentialism')
- Evolution is proven beyond doubt in all fields of science (20th century): the 20th century was all about proving evolution.
- Discontinuation: in August 2006, Andrew Truelove figures out Discontinuation, then gives it a name and spreads the idea. Now, the theory of evolution is complete: we both a.) know reality (evolution) and b.) now have the way to logically act upon it (Discontinuation).
The only thing in human history that can be called 'progress' is the extinction of our species. That is the only way to truly better our condition as a species: stop bringing more of us into this meaningless death trap of a world. Thus, Discontinuation is the culmination of all the progressive steps that lead up to it.
[edit] Discontinuists in history
In chronological order:
- Schopenhauer (late 1800s)
- Zapffe (early 1900s)
- Thomas Ligotti (2004) (he has expressed his beliefs in an interview in Fantastic Metropolis Magazine, October 31st, 2004 (http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/ligotti/full/))
- Andrew Truelove (2006)
