Meaning of Life

Why are we here?

The meaning of life is not just to be,

but also to participate in a process

which is steadily increasing

the organization of the universe.

The amount of “personal meaning”

is quite small,

but non-zero,

and as a collective

we are changing the universe.

This is my "Material Positivism" take on how we fit into the universe.  I suppose this meaning will not be viewed as a grand vision of why we are here.  Surely we have more purpose than this?  But what is greater than changing the universe?  The human ego is so grandiose that any realistic assessment will never meet expectation.

To be honest, I see this as more significant than the Christian idea that we are put here to glorify God.  Like we are some kind of decoration that God puts on the universe.  I see us playing an active — if very small — role.

Of course, we have a meaning and purpose to love other people.  That is actually part of this expression.  The human social superpower is that we actually care about others, and through love, will actually help others more than we benefit ourselves.  Without love, our lives would be purely transactional: I will do something if I get the same or more back.  With love you have people giving more than they receive, and that is the superpower that creates something out of nothing.

Everyone is part of it, even if your part is just to serve as a “bad example.”  Because everything is ultimately connected through events and interactions.  Everything effects everything, so you have a part to play.

How did we get this purpose?   I don’t know.  What seems rather amazing is that the universe seems clearly to cause organization to increase.   A perfect Big Bang would spread material out completely evenly, and there would just be a completely homogeneous gas of Hydrogen everywhere.   But that is not what we see.  All on their own, stars form.   Then they blow up spreading material for new stars.   Complex hydrocarbons form, and even make replicating units that increase the complexity.  I don’t know why this exists.  Maybe there is a creator that started in all for some nefarious purpose, or maybe there is a logical reason why the universe must necessarily be this way.   But whatever, we are part of it.

Also, I don’t think we are the culmination.  The universe is so damn big, and we are in the “middle” scale.  String are 10^-33cm.  Atoms are 10^-16cm.   We are 100cm, and the universe is about 10^28 cm.   There is plenty of room for larger scales of emergence.   So it is likely that enough sentient animals (maybe 10^10) will form parts of larger emergent structures.  This is pure speculation.

This meaning leaves me with a slight tinge of regret: I will never see the culmination of our purpose.  The process is long: billions of years.   I am a tiny part of it.  I don’t mind being tiny, but I wish I could see the end result, which is likely to be glorious.