What's the meaning of life?

[Pattern-chaser]

I rarely wore a lab coat ...

Only when the cameras are rolling...

...when a lab coat is far from the only prop. I do all my own 'stunts', and am available for weddings, funerals and prom nights!

Reporter: What's that machine?

Scientist: It's a [x] but it not relevant to these particular studies.

Reporter: Never mind, drag that thing over here because it has lots of lights and buttons.

And now we return, quite surprisingly, to real life. I remember when the media were permitted to report on the sonar systems I was working on. They refused to use the actual sonar system as a background, because it didn't have enough "lights and buttons"! I believe they later substituted a box with the necessary amount of bells and whistles to 'correctly' represent what they were reporting on to their audience.

Many years before, at the York International Youth Arts Festival in 1971, part of the City of York's 1900th anniversary celebrations, I recall the media trying to coerce us into "freaking out" (their words), dancing wildly in the street, acting as though we were drugged to the eyeballs, to show their audience "what the festival is really all about". N.B. while I was at the festival, I neither saw nor took any drugs. Sadly.

[Sy Borg]

I rarely wore a lab coat ...

Only when the cameras are rolling...

...when a lab coat is far from the only prop. I do all my own 'stunts', and am available for weddings, funerals and prom nights!

Reporter: What's that machine?

Scientist: It's a [x] but it not relevant to these particular studies.

Reporter: Never mind, drag that thing over here because it has lots of lights and buttons.

And now we return, quite surprisingly, to real life. I remember when the media were permitted to report on the sonar systems I was working on. They refused to use the actual sonar system as a background, because it didn't have enough "lights and buttons"! I believe they later substituted a box with the necessary amount of bells and whistles to 'correctly' represent what they were reporting on to their audience.

Many years before, at the York International Youth Arts Festival in 1971, part of the City of York's 1900th anniversary celebrations, I recall the media trying to coerce us into "freaking out" (their words), dancing wildly in the street, acting as though we were drugged to the eyeballs, to show their audience "what the festival is really all about". N.B. while I was at the festival, I neither saw nor took any drugs. Sadly. 😉

Too funny! I half choked on my muesli. I also idea of you dancing around wildly as though off your head, hard as it is to imagine :)

Seriously, the way the media has so long routinely mislead the public in so many little ways, it's no surprise that societies are falling prey to absurd conspiracy theories and delusional thinking.

[Pattern-chaser]

Many years before, at the York International Youth Arts Festival in 1971, part of the City of York's 1900th anniversary celebrations, I recall the media trying to coerce us into "freaking out" (their words), dancing wildly in the street, acting as though we were drugged to the eyeballs, to show their audience "what the festival is really all about". N.B. while I was at the festival, I neither saw nor took any drugs. Sadly.

I also [like] idea of you dancing around wildly as though off your head, hard as it is to imagine

It has happened in the past, just occasionally , but not there or then. As bolshy teenagers, we told them what we thought of their attempted misrepresentations, and refused (loudly) to coöperate.

[Sy Borg]

Many years before, at the York International Youth Arts Festival in 1971, part of the City of York's 1900th anniversary celebrations, I recall the media trying to coerce us into "freaking out" (their words), dancing wildly in the street, acting as though we were drugged to the eyeballs, to show their audience "what the festival is really all about". N.B. while I was at the festival, I neither saw nor took any drugs. Sadly. 😉

I also [like] idea of you dancing around wildly as though off your head, hard as it is to imagine :)

It has happened in the past, just occasionally 😉, but not there or then. As bolshy teenagers, we told them what we thought of their attempted misrepresentations, and refused (loudly) to coöperate.

If they want you to make fools of yourselves for the camera, they can pay you to do so like so many others are paid to play the fool for the camera.

[Barkun]

First comes the problem or the sum, prior to any major objectives or minor tasks. Our problem, as far as we know, is the universe. It already has a solution. One way to look at life's meaning (i.e. the meaning of life) is to ascribe it it's value concerning the solution to the universal problem. Another way to look at life's meaning is introspectively, what it's like to exist in life, as life. That's a different association, it's answer is purely subjective and is not necessarily grounded in logic.

[PepeBrainjuice]

I used chatGPT to make sure that we are asking the right question.
The best answer I got from ChatGPT was

What could motivate a soul to be associated with a human body - Even for a short period of time

Scientists say that the universe is made of 5% of matter and about 27% of dark matter and 68% of dark energy.
Our body is made of matter. We get conscious of the world through the information we get from our senses. That limits us to 5% of the world.
The soul is not limited to those 5%
Plato's allegory of the cave comes to mind. You only have to replace the cave with the human body.

[Sy Borg]

I used chatGPT to make sure that we are asking the right question.
The best answer I got from ChatGPT was

What could motivate a soul to be associated with a human body - Even for a short period of time

Scientists say that the universe is made of 5% of matter and about 27% of dark matter and 68% of dark energy.
Our body is made of matter. We get conscious of the world through the information we get from our senses. That limits us to 5% of the world.
The soul is not limited to those 5%
Plato's allegory of the cave comes to mind. You only have to replace the cave with the human body.

I am not sure if the blank quote is a mistake or ironic. If the latter, nice work! :)

[Barkun]

Life has no meaning, it is not art but rather something above what a person can produce freely, without regarding law. It is a certified model that can be interpreted many ways, but only one correctly - not regarding what it means to one, but what it is to all(the correct answer to 'what is life?').

[whateverist]

Life has no meaning, it is not art but rather something above what a person can produce freely, without regarding law. It is a certified model that can be interpreted many ways, but only one correctly - not regarding what it means to one, but what it is to all(the correct answer to 'what is life?').

I think we are free to (and also constrained to) decide for ourselves what that meaning is but I don't think it is something we just make up any old way as a lark. I'd say that meaning is something discovered as we go along in the course of living. It isn't so much up to us as it is incumbent upon us to take note of what pulls us toward it and energizes us in so doing.

[LuckyR]

Life has no meaning, it is not art but rather something above what a person can produce freely, without regarding law. It is a certified model that can be interpreted many ways, but only one correctly - not regarding what it means to one, but what it is to all(the correct answer to 'what is life?').

I think we are free to (and also constrained to) decide for ourselves what that meaning is but I don't think it is something we just make up any old way as a lark. I'd say that meaning is something discovered as we go along in the course of living. It isn't so much up to us as it is incumbent upon us to take note of what pulls us toward it and energizes us in so doing.

It's an issue of perspective. Usually the title question is asked from the perspective of the universe (external), whereas life only has meaning from our personal (internal) perspective.

[whateverist]

Life has no meaning, it is not art but rather something above what a person can produce freely, without regarding law. It is a certified model that can be interpreted many ways, but only one correctly - not regarding what it means to one, but what it is to all(the correct answer to 'what is life?').

I think we are free to (and also constrained to) decide for ourselves what that meaning is but I don't think it is something we just make up any old way as a lark. I'd say that meaning is something discovered as we go along in the course of living. It isn't so much up to us as it is incumbent upon us to take note of what pulls us toward it and energizes us in so doing.

It's an issue of perspective. Usually the title question is asked from the perspective of the universe (external), whereas life only has meaning from our personal (internal) perspective.

Yes indeed. It is hard to imagine meaning from an external perspective unless you see the cosmos as in some sense animate (an idea I am open to but haven’t imagined in much detail). Can you elaborate on how you envision a universal sense of meaning?

[LuckyR]

Life has no meaning, it is not art but rather something above what a person can produce freely, without regarding law. It is a certified model that can be interpreted many ways, but only one correctly - not regarding what it means to one, but what it is to all(the correct answer to 'what is life?').

I think we are free to (and also constrained to) decide for ourselves what that meaning is but I don't think it is something we just make up any old way as a lark. I'd say that meaning is something discovered as we go along in the course of living. It isn't so much up to us as it is incumbent upon us to take note of what pulls us toward it and energizes us in so doing.

It's an issue of perspective. Usually the title question is asked from the perspective of the universe (external), whereas life only has meaning from our personal (internal) perspective.

Yes indeed. It is hard to imagine meaning from an external perspective unless you see the cosmos as in some sense animate (an idea I am open to but haven’t imagined in much detail). Can you elaborate on how you envision a universal sense of meaning?

Well the central tenet of Humanism is that human life is the starting point for morality and philosophy. Of course in Theism gods are all powerful and well beyond the grasp of humans BUT humans are the god's chosen, therefore humans have meaning (given by gods).

[whateverist]

Well I'm pretty comfortable with a Humanist foundation but I am aesthetically open to whatever symbolic, poetic or mythic theme might turn up as significant in my direct experience. I don't use philosophy to screen my experience. It is more like philosophy has to square itself with my experience to maintain credibility. Mostly it succeeds.

[PepeBrainjuice]

A better way to phrase the question could be: "What could motivate a soul to get associated with a human body?"
Our brain represents only 2% of our weight but uses 20% of our energy. That should make anybody suspicious. Could this energy be used at night by the soul? Could it be processed into consciousness? The most important part of our life could be at night and we may not be conscious of it.
We are walking in the fog - conscious only of what is close to us - not sure in which direction to go. We focus on details. The first step is to get conscious of our limitations and push the envelope.

[Pattern-chaser]

I'd say that meaning is something discovered as we go along in the course of living.

Aside: "Discovered", yes, but also created too, I think?