this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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No. Even if reincarnation exists, time is finite in the universe. You wouldn't have an unlimited amount of tries to guarantee the best outcome.
You assume reincarnation follows linear time. If reincarnation is true, I assume it works like in The Egg, and everyone experiences every life across all of time.
I have no reason to believe anything else. I only experience this one life.
Okay, but OP's prompt specifically addressed people who believe in reincarnation.
That's like responding to "People who like potatoes, what's your favorite way to cook them?" with "None, I don't like potatoes." Isn't really relevant to the topic.
I don't believe in reincarnation but I don't dismiss it either. There's simply no proof. Though, with how much stuff we record and keep track of now, seems like if someone's past life occurs in this time period it'd be possible to fact check.
I didn't think there were really any different types either; at least from what I gather from your comment. For me, it only means past lives residing in your body. Nothing from the future. That's the only way it's ever been presented to me.
You suggested everyone experiences all of their lives at once. I only said I don't see how that can be true if I don't currently experience that. I am included in everyone.
And I'm not going to toss out apparent truths to try to fit beliefs in. That's why I also stated I have no reason to believe time is anything but linear since that is how it appears to be now. We don't have a full grasp on time but future events having physical affects on the present, or past, seems pretty problematic.
Well then, here's the different presentation I was referring to.
I wasn't talking about everyone experiencing all their lives at once, I was talking about all lives being experiences of the same soul, fractured across time and space, each experiencing only the most immediate. Linear time is quite possibly just an illusion of human perception, the filtering of some higher dimensional entity through our limited form. Kinda like when you view a CT scan as a sequence of 2-dimensional images.
There are 8 billion peope alive right now, we've got 5 billion years until the sun dies. Compared to the length of a single human life, that might as well be an infinite number of tries.
I think you underestimate the amount of possibilities in life. Even 5 billion tries isn't all that much.
Edit: The below is all wrong, I'm good at abstract maths and really shit at numbers, forgive me.
I think you missed me saying "compared to a single human life." Sure, there's no way literally everyone will get "the best possible life" or something, but a single person has very roughly 5ร10^9ร10^10รท10^2 is 5ร10^17 attempts assuming a 100 year life span.
And you only have to get it once, ultimately the probability depends on whatever the criteria here is, which frankly I don't know, assuming it just means "is a billionaire" that's around a 2ร10^-7 chance each time, assuming 2000 ish billionaires in a 10^10 population.
I tried plugging this into a binomial calculator but it couldn't process it, but regardless that's going to be some really good chances.
How do you get 5x10^17 attempts with the lifespan of the sun being 5x10^10 years?
Regardless, they said everyone. They also said the best life possible. That postulates some absolute max for a person. Not some random criteria you can think of.
Sorry, I did shower maths and that's always a bad idea. Ignore that whole thing. What I was thinking made sense in one particular way, but not in the way I had intended, so it's completely meaningless.
On the criteria, the absolute maximum implies having a criteria and I just chose the assumption that essentially infinite money would give you the best chance of having "the best possible life." I was just aiming for something order of magnitude so had to choose something arbitrarily.
If you can even define the best possible life in a meaningful way, then I'd say it's absolutely 0% chance because to me, a single day of winter ruins it.