Comments on: What is the meaning of life? (book, life lessons, collaborative)

What is the meaning of life? (book, life lessons, collaborative)

mathowie — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:18:46 -0800

is an attempt to get stories from everyday folks answering the question "what is the meaning of life?" for an eventual book. You only have until Friday to submit your own thoughts here, though I hope for the book's sake they have a blanket ban on mentions of puppy dogs, unicorns, and teddy bears.

By: echodolphin

echodolphin — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:23:18 -0800

On behalf of the project, yes, we have the following bans: 42: A spam filter deletes all entries that say the meaning of life is "42." Not original. Blatantly Lifetime-esque submissions. This is a Chicken Soup for the Soul for intelligent people.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:31:46 -0800

a blanket ban on mentions of puppy dogs, unicorns, and teddy bears. but, but, but...!

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:37:20 -0800

There should also be a ban on "quantum" and "emergent." Actually, let's extend that one to the entire web.

By: magodesky

magodesky — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:41:36 -0800

42: A spam filter deletes all entries that say the meaning of life is "42." Not original. I'll never forgive Douglas Adams for starting for starting that joke.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:42:34 -0800

that's uncanny: i've been doing this with audio interviews with random people off and on for a while now. totally great that things like this happen. great site.

By: wah

wah — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 19:57:38 -0800

The "best" responses will be posted here for the world to view on October 31, 2004. Curious. That's when I started posting my own argument on the question. BTW, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything...not just life. Oh no! vacapinta wants to censor my work.....aaaaahhh!

By: nixerman

nixerman — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 20:36:32 -0800

There should be a ban on entries that contain "God." Really not original. Some of these are just plain disturbing. As vah pointed out, 42 isn't the meaning of life. It's the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" My calculations suggest the meaning of life is a prime number less than 17.

By: grumblebee

grumblebee — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:12:39 -0800

I've always been confused by the question. I should state that I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in a "planner" behind everything. I am also inclined to take things literally. But "meaning"? Words have meaning. Symbols have meaning. To have meaning, something must by one thing while standing for something else. Life isn't a symbol, it's a process. How can a process mean something? A process just is. Like I said, I am probably being too literal -- perhaps it's just an idiom. But I've always wondered why more people didn't ask "what's the purpose of life?" or "what's the goal of life?"

By: echodolphin

echodolphin — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 21:24:01 -0800

grumblebee: a fair amount of submitters have taken this stance, correcting the question to address goals. this is why on the form it says or, how can life be made better? this allows for just about everyone to submit something useful to the project; even if you don't believe in a big ol' plan as I do, the idea of a process lends itself to suggestions for improving that process.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:32:04 -0800

grumblebee: a fair amount of submitters have taken this stance, correcting the question to address goals. this is why on the form it says or, how can life be made better? I like to take the question as "what is life good for?" As a fundamentalist atheist, I'd say life is good for: making things, non-procreative fucking, laughter, love, cats, banjos, friends, the movie "Dark Star", stuff like that. The question "what is the meaning of life?" is essentially meaningless.

By: shivohum

shivohum — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:57:30 -0800

The question of the meaning of life is the same as asking why there's something rather than nothing. If that isn't a meaningful metaphysical question, nothing is.

By: Fuzzy Monster

Fuzzy Monster — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:59:51 -0800

The question "What Is The Meaning Of Life?" most often implicitly refers only to Human Life. If we take grumblebee's formulations "What Is The Purpose Of Life?" and "What's The Goal Of Life?" and apply those questions to all living things, not just Human Life, we must also ask ourselves this: What Is The Goal of Every Living Thing? And here is the answer: The Goal of Life is to Reproduce Itself. If Life Didn't Reproduce Itself, There Would be No Life. I'm not saying that if you personally don't reproduce, your life is meaningless. What I'm saying is reproduction is a biological goal that all forms of life share. 'How can life be made better?' is a different question that essentially asks "What do you enjoy doing during your life?" 'Better,' of course, is subjective.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:10:48 -0800

The question of the meaning of life is the same as asking why there's something rather than nothing. The thing here is meaning. Assigning meaning to why things are is assuming purpose. Why must there be a purpose? People "do it", people kill other people and occasionally create transcendentally beautiful things, people die. Nature it is elegantly simple.

By: shivohum

shivohum — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:27:37 -0800

Assigning meaning to why things are is assuming purpose. Questioning why things are assumes there's a purpose, yes. You needn't inquire into purpose, I suppose, if you're happy with the deepest mysteries in life being utterly opaque, if you can live content mired in ignorance so profound the mind cannot begin to apprehend its dimensions. Some of us want more. We may not get it, but we seek it nonetheless.

By: loquacious

loquacious — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:34:00 -0800

The meaning of life is to negate entropy, if only for a while.

By: rushmc

rushmc — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:36:00 -0800

I think "meaning" is very different from the notion that there is an inherent purpose. Meaning can be discovered, adopted, created, crafted, layered, accreted, remixed, internalized, rejected, and gifted to others; purpose implies a programmed function that should be followed or performed.

By: drpynchon

drpynchon — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 23:59:12 -0800

Is it to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women? Wait no.. That's what's best in life.

By: rdub

rdub — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:51:07 -0800

BTW, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything...not just life. If you want to get technical, 42 is the answer given by Deep Thought to "the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything." The question itself is unknowable, it and the answer being mutually exclusive in any given universe. "So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means."

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 08:15:49 -0800

The Purpose of Life, for the individual, is simply to be happy. Discovering what will bring you happiness, however, is another question...

By: wah

wah — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 08:45:17 -0800

Discovering what will bring you happiness, however, is another question... Ahh, that's why they built the Earth Mark VIII to derive the correct question using biological entities as slightly more advanced qubits.