Table of Contents
1. More on Reality
2. Exploring the Meaning of Life
3. The True Purpose of Life (in 7 Lines)
4. Related Posts
1. More on Reality
“The narrative is an abstraction of the physical, but that abstraction is the actual experience, which is more real than the physical.”
Time
There are 2 times: Experience-time & Reality-time
Reality-time, as we know it, is the 4th dimension. Theoretically, it can slow down & speed up, or go backwards1for this one, perhaps not.
Experience-time only goes in one direction and one speed.2Although, you can’t measure the direction/speed, because there’s nothing to compare it to.Even if reality-time goes backwards, experience-time goes forward; going backwards in experience-time would mean not having gone forward at the first place.
Here’s an analogy: in a time-travel movie, time goes backwards. While the time goes backwards (in the movie), the “actual” time of the film goes forward.3E.g. The main character starts going back in time at 0:12:30, reaching “10 years before” at 0:14:30. You see, the “real” time went “forward” 2 minutes, not back 10 years.
You can’t extrapolate time (out of experience). In other words, there isn’t a “now”.
Just like how you can’t add any number of points to make a line, no amount of “now” can make time. “Now” is just a divider between the past/future. It’s irrelevant when it comes to the experience.
(You can “understand” 2-dimensions, but you can’t “experience” 2D. The dimensions (of your experience) aren’t dissociable.)
There isn’t a “point” in music. If time were to stop, while you’re listening to music, you wouldn’t be hearing a sustained sound; you’d be hearing nothing. Even if it would be, you can’t have “music”
The past/present/future coexists.
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Simulation Theory
Reality is a simulation but the experience is not.
Regardless of which reality you’re in, your experience is always ‘absolutely’ real. So, it doesn’t actually matter if this reality is a simulation, or not.
If you experience it, it’s real.
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Reasons For a Simulation
(Written with “I” not “you”…it makes sense better)
It’s to figure something out. E.g. Social policy experiments, war tactics, science, etc.
First off, I’m in the simulation. I wouldn’t put myself into some simulation when it’s for an experiment. Also, if the technology was advanced enough to simulate intelligence, rendering the entire world is unnecessary.4Just simulate the intelligence to figure things out!
It’s to give me suffering. Because I did something bad (or something).
I’m not suffering. This reality is quite utopian, actually.
Hence, I know that it was voluntary.5If I were to force someone else inside a simulation, I’d rather add some suffering…I probably dislike the guy!
It’s for entertainment. Because “real” reality is boring.
Perhaps humanity has figured out everything; there’s nothing to do. It seems clearly probable, with 100s of years + 100,000IQ artificial intelligence.
“No external memories” is a plus. It makes this reality feel more real. Perhaps I want to “watch the movie for the first time again.”
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God
(I come from a non-atheist/religious family. Like blank. So you could say this is a pretty rational view.)
I doubt that God is omniscient. In other words, it’s a lot easier to imagine a God who can’t solve paradoxes.
If you create a simulation, you’re essentially a God to that simulation. You’re almighty; you can determine all the fates and ignore the laws of physics…but you still wouldn’t be able to make 1 + 1 = 3.6This is why math is ‘absolute’.
Religion is interesting.
On the outside, it seems stupid. It looks full of unnecessary rules. It caused a lot of conflicts, too.
But, it survived thousands of years. Which means, there are some truths to it.
Maybe I’ll try one…but which one?
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2. Exploring the Meaning of Life
It’s Personal
If there was a “universal”7obviouspurpose of life, we’d know already. Smart people have been trying for years, they can’t figure it out.8Even if it’s there, “I” can’t figure it out.
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For Me
When you do something, there are 2 possible reasons:
A. For its own sake; it’s meant for itself (or it has no meaning in the traditional sense)
B. For something else; it’s meant for something greater (it has meaning)
If an event satisfies neither, it’s a waste of time. If it satisfies 1, you’re (probably) satisfied.
Applying the same logic, you could live life:
A. For its own sake
B. For something else
The problem is that there’s no evidence of B(something else than life) because it lies outside of this reality.
Even in the case where you find B(I discover the reality outside of that reality) and the meaning was for ‘x’ in the outer reality: what is the meaning of “that” life?
It’s turtles all the way down. You can never truly find B–the external meaning of life.
So, does it exist? …No
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“So What?”
Keep asking the “so what?” question. Because it reveals the hidden meaning of anything.
“The purpose is to xyz(ex. Lie on the deathbed and not regret)”
“So what?” “What’s so special about the last minute of life?”
In practice, it goes on forever.
At some point, the meaning has to come from the very thing.
Interestingly, that’s when you ask the “meaning” question; when you don’t like the thing you’re doing. You’re never asking, “why am I doing this”, doing your favourite thing. You’re busy doing that thing!
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Passing on Genes
Having children almost automatically gives people a sense of meaning. In fact, it’s the only meaning people had for generations.
It works; lives become meaningful with children. It’s an effective solution to a meaningless life. But, it has its side effects.
The word, “children” is basically a death sentence for “the search of intrigue”; parents are too busy, and their lives are too meaningful to the search for intrigue.
It’s only before people have children, or after fully raising them, there could possibly be a search for intrigue.
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Finiteness of Life
The finiteness of life doesn’t give life meaning…but it creates urgency: to do something now than later.
Death isn’t really a problem. It’s nothingness. It’s zero. The “incoming nothingness” doesn’t really mean anything.
It’s the absence of9taking away thelife that’s the problem. More accurately, “not having lived” is a problem.
Saying “death ‘per se’ gives life meaning” is backwards.
Death is a negative event because you’re going (+) → (0). That means life already had meaning. If there’s no meaning without death, you’re going (0) → (0).
If you’ve done everything you could imagine, you’d die voluntarily.
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Average Life
Many people tell me, they “just want to chill.”10Which really means, they want peace.
When I ask these people, “what would be an ‘ideal’ life?”, they tell me:
- $1million salary
- Nice car/house/etc.
- Loving spouse/kids
- Etc.
- “A normal life”
Nothing’s wrong with this…but really?
Do you really want to live a “normal” life? Are you really intrigued about that 9-5 life? You just want to repeat the same thing over and over again, then die? For what?
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3. The True Purpose of Life (in 7 Lines)
Summary of the first 4 units:
1. 'Purpose' is a narrative concept, so God can't answer this question.
‘God‘ as in “that which is beyond absolute.” Beyond absolute, there’s no such thing as “purpose”.
Also, there’s no such thing as “purpose” at the atomic11physicallevel, either.
2. 'Purpose' comes from what matters.
‘Purpose’ is another word for desire. There has to be something I want, in order for me to get after it.12“For” requires an objective.
And desire comes from what matters.
3. I, and nothing else, absolutely exist, so the answer must be intrinsic.
‘I‘ as in experience.
An intrinsic answer would mean that some other’s experience matters more than mine.
If my experience is the only “real” experience, how can anything else matter more?13What matters to me, matters to me.
(Even if there’s a God14the essential type, my experience is more real.)
4. 3 things truly matter: peace, intrigue, and autonomy.
They’re root points.
Everything else either stems from them or isn’t mine.15Ego and Society are external influences.
5. 'Peace' can't be the purpose because it's no different than death.
Peace is cool, but it can’t be the distinguishing factor between life & death. Death is complete peace; there’s no “extra peace” with life.
6. 'Autonomy' can't be the purpose because it's a means to an end, not the end.
“To attain16or keepautonomy” can’t be the end-all-be-all; ‘Autonomy‘ by itself doesn’t mean anything.
7. ∴ ‘Intrigue’ is the true purpose of life.
(In addition…)
8. But peace & autonomy still matters, and are prerequisites.
Before I have peace & autonomy, I can’t fully devote myself to ‘intrigue‘.17Or it’s extremely hard, to the point of it being unreasonable.They just matter too much.
9. And they come from freedom & independence.
‘Freedom‘ & ‘independence‘, together ‘ownership‘, is the path to the true purpose of life.
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4. Related Posts
Questions & comments are welcome!
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