NEW VIDEO: OPTIMISTIC NIHILISM
Added 2017-07-26 12:17:04 +0000 UTC
We tried something new this time. Many people seem to feel existential dread when they watch our videos. So we wanted to talk a bit about the world view that is behind our scripts. The philosophy of Kurzgesagt, so to speak. Hope you like it! Back to real science next video.
This video also starts the new Kurzgesagt bi-weekly video cycle. So next video in about two weeks!
*Just like with political videos, we did not put the names of the $5 Patrons in the video description because this is more like a philosophy video. All the $5 Patrons will be in two August video in return!
Optimistic Nihilism gives life meaning. Kurzgesagt spreads Optimistic Nihilism. People watch Optimistic Nihilism video. People find meaning. People want to make world a better place. 30,000,000 years later, Humanity is a type 3 civilization. Thanks Kurzgesagt!
Clayton Ackroyd
2018-04-05 23:38:53 +0000 UTC
Beautifully done. *applauds*
Sandra Wollberg
2017-08-24 14:12:50 +0000 UTC
all my existential ideas harmonically collected and explained in one video, thank you so much ;)
2017-08-11 08:47:27 +0000 UTC
Exactly my philosophy since about 1960. We can build a utopia.
2017-08-07 17:07:25 +0000 UTC
Amazing, really interesting video. Thank you.
Kieran Chakravorty
2017-08-02 13:01:16 +0000 UTC
Amazing! Well done! We don't have answers, but this is a brilliant exploration of the uncertainies from a positive perspective.
Toni Tadolini
2017-08-02 02:31:16 +0000 UTC
This video concentrate a lot of the reasons why I love your videos and your work. Truly, thank you.
2017-07-31 14:29:26 +0000 UTC
I became a member with this amazing video.
2017-07-31 07:58:21 +0000 UTC
As always you guys make amazing videos.
2017-07-29 05:07:24 +0000 UTC
video that tells you you have limited time to live.
watch it 20 times.
Meyron Levanon
2017-07-28 17:57:17 +0000 UTC
The most beautiful video!
Kira Ck
2017-07-28 10:23:25 +0000 UTC
Had to double my pledge just because of this video
2017-07-27 23:50:04 +0000 UTC
This is what you call Quality > Quantity. I love this video so much, got me into deep thinking and questioning life. Thank you for making this video guys. :)
2017-07-27 22:03:04 +0000 UTC
BEST. VIDEO. EVER.
2017-07-27 21:46:31 +0000 UTC
wow wow wow
This had me teary eyed!
Thank you for your wonderful work.
Love!
Hugo van Niekerk
2017-07-27 19:13:34 +0000 UTC
One of my favourites of yours. The art style somehow get even MORE amazing and refined.
Brendan Mk
2017-07-27 16:53:31 +0000 UTC
wow ๐๐ greatest kurzgesagt video by far. I'm upping my donation. it's like yous express my entire way of thinking in words and graphics that I otherwise would've never been able to comprise. please keep doing what you guys do. more on this topic if possible, I'd love to hear more about conflict between opposing beliefs and how one's morals can drive the decisions of each side. I'd also like to say I agree heavily with bamabadeer in the idea that while everyone lives out their life exactly how they wish whether it be purely academic, recreational, religious, etc., we still share the concept of simply having a personal purpose to fulfill. it's a great look on the whole "meaning of life" debate
Andrew iLLadelph267
2017-07-27 08:20:42 +0000 UTC
Good video, not everyone has faith to keep them going and its inherent to an aware mind to want justification for their lives. For some its getting rowdy, some its chilling at a bbq party, some its hobbies, some its drugs or addiction, having control, or being content without purpose. But some of us, the scientifically interested, tend to desire something more meaningful and transcendental that agnosticism sometimes fits. Whether or not we are here by astronomical chance or destiny, you have the choice to waste an opportunity or try for something. If you can't form a complete origin of all nonfiction, supernatural thinking entities is still a valid consideration.
Bambadeer
2017-07-27 06:59:42 +0000 UTC
Every scene could have been a poster, incredible.
2017-07-27 04:56:28 +0000 UTC
The animation on this one was spectacular! Great work guys! Always nice to have one's world view reaffirmed. Pity that Optimistic Nihilism is nothing more than our brains' attempt to find purpose in the bleak philosophy of common/garden Nihilism... Nonetheless, fantastic content, keep it up!
Oorslavich
2017-07-27 04:40:56 +0000 UTC
This video moved me to finally become a Patreon supporter. Keep up the good work.
2017-07-27 03:11:35 +0000 UTC
This is more or less exactly how I've always felt and expressed better than I could ever do. Thank you for spreading your message.
2017-07-27 02:00:21 +0000 UTC
This is by far the best video you've ever done. And that's saying something. Bravo.
orange slice
2017-07-27 00:24:09 +0000 UTC
Cheer up Leslie, that means you've got at least negative 260 weeks remaining, and unlike many of us that number isn't counting down in some kind of an ominous fashion but instead growing in absolute value every day like a new sunrise. ๐
Jesse Thompson
2017-07-26 23:15:58 +0000 UTC
Let's build a utopia, together.
nebulalexicon
2017-07-26 23:15:12 +0000 UTC
This was a nice break in the usual programming, I really enjoyed it, and it hit #2 on trending in the UK so clearly others did too.
Sgtpanda
2017-07-26 23:12:57 +0000 UTC
Heh heh. If I'm going to die at 70, I'm already five years late (so to speak). Nice video; pretty much my own point of view, which is comfortable. Good stuff.
Leslie F. Hancock
2017-07-26 21:55:16 +0000 UTC
Long time fan, this video finally convinced me to support Kurzgesagt on patreon (even if for smallest tier).
I just fell in love with illustrations on this one, the style seems totally different.
Would be great to know who did those illustrations, so I can follow their other art?
Sorry for bad English, not a native speaker.
2017-07-26 21:34:26 +0000 UTC
Great video. Came from work and translated the video (cc) for couple of hours, because I too believe in contribution for the greater good. Hope you liked it
2017-07-26 21:07:02 +0000 UTC
I've been watching for a while, but I joined your Patreon because of this video.
TJ Gi
2017-07-26 20:45:32 +0000 UTC
Great video
Ryder
2017-07-26 20:11:05 +0000 UTC
Sounds about right to me. Keep improving all the things!
Kurt Mueller
2017-07-26 18:59:00 +0000 UTC
You all produce some of the best videos available on the Internet, this is why I'm happy to support you. In the case of this video... thank you โ you basically just summed up everything I have independently concluded over the past four years (and a massive existential crisis), and animated it so perfectly as well. Kudos to you โ thank you for helping to make life meaningful :)
Mihajlo961x
2017-07-26 18:47:32 +0000 UTC
This video affirms my reasons for supporting you guys, this is just beyond great!
2017-07-26 18:45:37 +0000 UTC
Yes! This was a beautiful summarization of my personal philosophy! This video is the perfect teaching tool to assist me in explaining life to my children. Thank you!
V
2017-07-26 18:40:09 +0000 UTC
Another awesome vid! Really enjoyed the music.
Jeremy Galloway
2017-07-26 18:11:28 +0000 UTC
So I'm not so found of this video.. I'd be more interested in a video about the quest of immortality (cryonics, anti-aging, this kind of stuff), instead of juste accepting death and rationalizing why "it's not that big a deal". I mean the genetic engineering video already covered a little of that, butyeah, that's my approach to death, refusing it. Now I'm rambling.
2017-07-26 18:02:30 +0000 UTC
This video was a bit painful to think about at the start, less painful at the end. The problem with all this is that if even one person decides to not want to allow you to do what you enjoy, you'll spend all your time fighting to be able to do what you enjoy but run out of time before you can actually do it.
LonMcGregor
2017-07-26 17:23:53 +0000 UTC
The only reasonable reaction to the concept of free will is to assume that you have it but no one else does. That way you can be compassionate about the shortcomings of others while still working to be the best possible you.
Tyson Jensen
2017-07-26 17:12:10 +0000 UTC
Stunning work everyone at Kurzgesagt. Thank you.
n0mir3k
2017-07-26 16:19:16 +0000 UTC
Totally agree with the animation.
n0mir3k
2017-07-26 16:18:44 +0000 UTC
Great timing. I've been in a downward spiral existential crisis for weeks. Still little comfort to the likely theory that we have no free will, though.
Lux Pro
2017-07-26 16:12:30 +0000 UTC
Feel free to write down one of those bonus points for making someone else's life better :)
2017-07-26 15:28:44 +0000 UTC
Loved this! Thank you
Erin McDonald
2017-07-26 15:03:14 +0000 UTC
Somehow the animation got even better in this one, great content too, love your work.
Stealthy_Jeff
2017-07-26 14:53:52 +0000 UTC
Great video as always. Were you a bit inspired by WaitButWhy and their life calendar ? It is a tool I have next to me all the time and felt it needs to be better known.
Kevin Guanziroli
2017-07-26 13:54:02 +0000 UTC
Guys, this is the most beautiful video you guys ever made! Love the rythm, the colours and the soundtrack!
Pedro Matos
2017-07-26 13:49:25 +0000 UTC
I love this video! A beautiful overview of a beautiful philosophy. It would be amazing if you guys attempted to create a 'rival' video to accompany this one.
What if there is a purpose to things?
What would that be?
How would we find out?
You could have a whole series of videos exploring different viewpoints.
2017-07-26 13:17:17 +0000 UTC
Just for bonus points, tho
Stan Manilov
2017-07-26 13:16:52 +0000 UTC
Don't think I wouldn't notice the animation error at 3:13 with the earth disappearing! But the art, design and colour palette of this video was particularly beautiful c:
2017-07-26 12:54:52 +0000 UTC
The animation in this is really, really pretty. Thanks for all the great work you do.
Kevin Vognar
2017-07-26 12:51:37 +0000 UTC
Nice! Philosophy is a great subject for your high quality videos. I hope to see more of this. Thanks for the amazing content
Cristian Navarro Parraguez
2017-07-26 12:39:53 +0000 UTC
Amazing video, one of my favourites yet. I love your philosophy and its the one I have adopted too, it's so great for you to explain to your viewers how you operate when making videos, as its a good indication of why you make them the way you do, as well as being a great philosophy for others to adopt.
Dylan Manson
2017-07-26 12:38:40 +0000 UTC
Great video! Personally, I believe we are in the process of finding value in ourselves and in each other. I think this may be the first period of time in human history (1900's and on possibly) that we are capable of coexisting on an international scale due to technology.
We are branching off from a metaphorical sort of social/hierarchy of predator-prey relationship between ourselves, and now have the luxury to question our own existences on a grand scale. For a long time this was a privilege that only a select few with the proper circumstances have been willing to do -- question reality.
This liberty of "total self awareness", total autonomy (as a part of a group and as an individual) is a gift of the modern world. It's harder to even begin to question the Universe as an individual when greater questions for massive groups of human cultures such as food and basic survival plagued the majority of human consciousness for centuries.
Now that we are all, as a whole, aware of our existence on this tiny dot, and so many of us as a whole have our basic needs met (with numbers of smaller, more impoverished societies becoming increasingly more sophisticated every year) we are almost on the fringe of pushing past whatever comes next in our dynamic evolution.
Now, we are more than ever becoming one united and long standing species. It is almost time for us to discover our greater relationship with the universe; instead of pondering it -- actually *discover* it. Therefore, the grand Chaos that is the Universe will probably save us from ourselves and our own nihilism once Singularity is reached, and humans (by proxy of "Nature's" unpredictable crises) are forced to evolve yet again ;)
Darryl Quintin
2017-07-26 12:37:00 +0000 UTC
Love the transitions! The style feels evolutionary yet quite familiar, keep it up :)
Dawson
2017-07-26 12:34:24 +0000 UTC
Amazing! I don't know how best to describe it !!!.!?!!
2017-07-26 12:33:57 +0000 UTC
So much pressure... must be nice to other people, build galactic empire... ahh
Manuel
2017-07-26 12:28:44 +0000 UTC
Love it! โค๏ธ
Michael Finney
2017-07-26 12:20:00 +0000 UTC