Reddit reviews Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction

Ray Brassier's Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction seems relevant here. It's a philosophy acknowledging that the universe will come to an end (by heat death), and so asks how and why philosophy should proceed with that knowledge.

Ray Brassier is a good contemporary source on this. If a bit verbose at times.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nihil-Unbound-Enlightenment-Extinction-Brassier/dp/023052205X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=ray+brassier&qid=1572768710&sr=8-1

Because of the continued expansion of the universe, eventually even matter itself will disorganize and molecular structures of any kind will not be possible. These machines you are referring to will devolve into nothing (refer to "Nihil Unbound"

>In this show they are selling one thing; that it all makes sense. That there is an underlying rhythm to reality, and by living in the right way and taking the right drugs and being a general desperate bastard you can perceive it. You can never control it and you can never, never understand it, but it is there and it can be seen. Sometimes. Sometimes, when you’re watching True Detective on TV, it seems like it all makes sense.

I couldn't disagree more with this. I think TD is playing with the allure that "it all makes sense," but that in the end that's a bluff – a bluff we tell ourselves, a bluff that makes characters like Rust so attractive in spite of because of the pathos of "seeing it all." What TD is really about, if you ask me, is the incredible fragility of human being in the face of the chaos and destruction that is the world we live in. There are at least three reasons for understanding TD in this way: 1. the manner in which the story is constructed; 2. because on this reading it succeeds; and 3. it's the most compelling reading.

First, the story itself is constructed around narratives: the narratives we tell ourselves about who we are, the narratives we tell others about who we are, the narratives that detectives construct in piecing together crimes and the narratives we construct in making sense of the world. Rust has a very compelling perspective which we might call nihilism unbound, but he pays a terrible price for it and ultimately he recognizes it is unsustainable. Much could be said on this point, but to keep it simple I'll just say that the story ends not with some kind cosmic confirmation or closure, but with pathos – a pathos that is cathartic, perhaps, but without clear resolution.

Second, many people felt the ending was a disappointment. The principle of charity would suggest that we give TD the best possible reading which would entail understanding it as succeeding at what it evidently succeeded at rather than failing at what we thought it ought to have been.

Three, the world doesn't make sense. How wonderful to have that fact reflected on television. Why would you want it any other way?