Philosophy Now Forum

I have no children, do I lose something? Am I missing something important or essential?

Obviously, my genetic lineage will end, and I won't have any offspring or descendants. When I die, I will not leave anything for the future other than fossils or footprints (whether they be literal fossils and footprints or just residual traces left over on an internet archive of some sort). And they will eventually waste away over time as well, until there is nothing left to ever demonstrate that I was here.

Is that a bad thing? Is it a good thing? Or does it matter at all either way?

Thoughts?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:21 pm I have no children, do I lose something?

you might not get to experience some types of particular experiences, however you can not lose what you never had.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:21 pm I missing something important or essential?

If you are, here, asking if you are missing some thing important or essential by not procreating and producing children, then you are certainly not missing any thing 'essential'. And, what is 'important', or not, to you, depends on 'you', only.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:21 pm Obviously, my genetic lineage will end, and I won't have any offspring or descendants.

How do you know?

Is it a complete impossibility that you meet someone tomorrow, or the next day, and have babies with them?

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:21 pm When I die, I will not leave anything for the future other than fossils or footprints (whether they be literal fossils and footprints or just residual traces left over on an internet archive of some sort).

'you' do not 'die'. In the sense that 'you' will leave an ever lasting effects that 'you' have made on and in 'the world'. 'you', like "jesus", live on forever more. And, especially so from what 'you' have expressed and shared, here.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:21 pm And they will eventually waste away over time as well, until there is nothing left to ever demonstrate that I was here.

Of course what is, here, on earth will eventually end, with the ending of earth. However, you human beings will have traversed past just living on earth, only, by then.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Fri Jun 20, 2025 10:21 pm Is that a bad thing? Is it a good thing? Or does it matter at all either way?

Thoughts?

What is 'good' and/or 'bad' depends on one's views, opinions, et cetera.

So, is 'that' a good or a bad thing, to 'you', exactly?

Also, 'look at' those like "fairy", here. it wishes, all it can, that it did not procreate and bring children into 'this world' and even into 'Life', Itself.

So, what you have, some others really wish for, and wish they did too.

footprints on Hollywood Boulevard...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0cG7a2PW0

-Imp

We all get to join the majority. How do you feel about it?