As for the job issue: if you get stuck in a shitty job that you don’t like then change jobs. I’m not sure of the current employment situation in Manchester, but I know that there are tons of jobs available here. Or maybe you could take what you do like and turn it into a job. What I’m trying to say is that the only thing keeping someone in a job they hate is him/herself.

If I die, I can’t do that. I hope to affect people. My goal in life is that somewhat I’ve never personally met will be affected by my death. Because, right now, no matter what I do, it won’t matter. I have nothing else to do, and since I believe I have the ability to achieve my own goal, I have to figure out how to do it without compromising myself. It’s useless, but it’s meaningful to me, and hopefully, eventually, to others.

For all logical reasons, though, I agree with you. Sort of. However, if you commit suicide because it’s less bothersome than enduring existence, I’ll find a way to reanimate you and force you to scrub elderly people. THOROUGHLY.

But that’s not what I was saying. I’ll try and make myself a bit clearer. Imagine a sealed container, filled with some gas, helium for simplicity. The individual helium atoms represent people and the container represents the world. As the atoms fly around they occasionally come into contect with other atoms and interact with one another, these interactions represent the interactions with people you have throughout your life.

Now if one atom is removed from the container, the internal pressure would decrease by a tiny fraction and overall, the internal situation would hardly change at all, it would be an almost immeasurable difference. In fact, thousands upon thousands of atoms could be removed with barely even the slightest change.

However, from the outside of the container, it would appear as if there is no change, even if all the atoms were removed, what’s left is still a container. The situation inside the container would have changed drastically, it would be a vacuum, but from the outside there is no visible difference. Therefore, no matter what happens inside, from the outside it’s still the same, and nothing that happens inside matters.

But, you’re saying that worth is calculated something like, worth = people that would miss you if you died * the amount that they miss you.

(Or more accurately, worth = Σ₁ⁿ ( person_n * grief_n ) )

Fair enough, I don’t see any flaw with working it out that way, but the only time all of that raw emotion is displayed is after you’re dead, and by that time you’re not around to see it.

So having covered the point that the entire human race collectively has a net worth of zero, what about individual people? Well, if the sum of all the parts is zero then all of the individual parts must also be worth nothing.

This reminds me of a quote, supposedly by Woody Allen:

Socrates was mortal. All people are mortal. Therefore, all people are Socrates.

I disagree on your point on the worth of people. Because worth is very much subjective. You know the old adage “one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure”. It very much holds true. The sum accomplishments and failures are very, very much important to humans, but I don’t suppose it affects the sun much at all. However, as a musician, Les Paul’s life and accomplishments (the production of electric guitars) made a big impact on me and every rock musician’s life. So while your life might not affect the existance of life on a planet in a separate galaxy, it could have a very large impact on humans (and other life) living today or those that will. So you are worthless to who exactly? Because the lives of those you affect don’t view you as worthless, value is in the eye of the beholder, really.