What is the meaning of life? - A question that often feels high-minded and silly to discuss, I've always found it an interesting question. What IS the meaning of life? Firstly, I think the question itself is flawed and vague - but I still like to explore it. There are myriad of perspectives or scopes to think about, and since everyone has their own concept of what their life is and means, there is a different answer for every person. That being said, here are some of my thoughts on the matter.
I like to think about it in different ways, one of which is to think about it as a goal - what is the goal of life? I suppose from there it goes into personal goals, or perhaps goal of existence - as in what are we meant to accomplish? This one feels super tricky, probably because it's easy to see that there is no one clear-cut answer. One issue with this is agency - does the ability to do something confer right or responsibility? Sometimes I think about how much humanity seems to shape its environment to fit its needs, rather than working harder to find a balance or shape itself differently in many cases. I'm not sure I could argue that humans should be living as hunter-gatherers in small communities either though, and the things we have accomplished as a species/civilization is astounding- in both a positive and negative way. It seems pretty safe to argue that humanity has made a lot of progress in our time on Earth, but that can really depend on what you call progress. I find this highlighted when thinking about genetic engineering, which is not too far in the future. There are many things that can be improved or "fixed" by our standards, but should that necessarily be called progress? When we discovered the ability to use atomic reactions to create incredible energy and then made a bomb with it, was that progress? Due to the nature of "progress" as a concept, it really boils down to the person using it to describe something. Maybe thinking about the goal of human life is a bad thought-cloud, so let's hop to the personal goals cloud.
What is the goal of life? Is it a goal like a target or finish line, or maybe more like a checklist? Is it in the journey, or the destination? What would you call success? Power? Wealth? Happiness? Is life a means, or an end? I think these are important questions to consider, and even these small questions are open to a lot of personal interpretation. For me, I find myself most drawn to the feeling that it is more in the journey, that finding what makes you happy is one of the most important things, and being true to yourself. I also think that the journey is one of self-discovery, and the being true to yourself involves a lot of trying to figure out how you really feel, and being honest with yourself. I have all these thoughts about the person I am and want to be, I think it's best to sum up by saying - I hope that I can be the person I want to be, and that that person is a good human being, whatever that truly means.
One last way I'd like to talk about the idea of life and existence having a meaning, and that's in thoughts about consciousness and self. Something that's always been interesting to me is the idea of quantifying consciousness, a quest for something tangible and scientific which we can call our "self" as individuals. When you think about anatomy and physiology, it kind of boils down into electrical signals and a big fleshy machine partially ran by bacteria and a big ol' mess of neurons, so what in, about or around that is us. I mean, I know that I am me, at least, I'm pretty sure, and you probably feel rather confident that you are you. Our ideas about self have grown past just your irl self I think, and I don't think that it's a trend new to humanity.
In our quest to explain how we are different than animals, which we are by general definition, I think we start to see some of our ideas about consciousness and identity. As a species, we are pretty good at identifying and recognizing things, looking for patterns and structure, and determining differences. Our search to better understand what makes us different than "animals" is an expression of that trait in humans, at least in my opinion. Our ability to recognize faces has only recently been able to be matched by computers, and mostly in specific conditions, and the ability to recognize that the image in a mirror is your own is actually something much more human. We hear and see things and are able to recognize things, like the sound of a band or style of a painter. These are patterns that we create though, but we do try to find patterns in life through science as well. As far as a point, I'm not sure there is one - except the one that we create. We've created the patterns that we see in the world in our quest to understand and explain life, and so the only point is to continue to create patterns and structures to understand it.
It's not a question with a singular answer, or really any "answer", because the question of "What is the meaning of life?" is flawed, both by being too vague and hinging upon a highly subjective concept. The best that I can boil down my thoughts on that matter would be to say - The meaning of life is to be experienced, to feel, to try, to fail, to succeed - Life is to be lived, it is a means to its own end, a journey which is the destination, and endless stream of metaphors and comparisons....
I'll just let myself out, til next time-
Trot On Everypony,
Alturiigo
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