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Comment by terryf | Hacker News Reader

In a finite physical universe, nothing has intrinsic meaning. The only meaning anything has, is the meaning that you attribute to that thing. Thus, anything that is meaningful to you, is the most meaningful thing in the universe.

No goal is better than any other, because there is no universally defined "better", everything just "is". Therefore, you are free to say that the goal you have chosen is better than any other, and you would be correct, because just by choosing it, you have changed the balance.

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I agree in principal, Hence, why I suggested Camus in my original comment.

But what happens when you can't attribute meaning to anything? Do you revert to religion or suicide (Those were the three options for camus)?

Yeah, I know that feeling - it is hard to get past it when it happens and it certainly takes a while for me every time it happens.

This is certainly not a universal cure, but for me the ideas presented in this ted talk have helped: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_asks_why_are_we_happy?...

So, set a goal and work towards that - but, looking at your profile that suggestion seems trite and silly, because you are and have been doing that for some time. Doing difficult things falls into the same category.

My suggestion would be to pick something completely pointless - something that you could easily pay someone to do for you, better than you have time-skill for and then do that.

For example, I'm building a house. Fairly big, not huge, wooden. I have no training in it and it has taken 5 years of evenings and weekends so far. Any reasonable construction team would have finished in 6 months and it would have had better quality of work.

I love it - it makes me happy to look at the small bit that I finished yesterday and somehow it gives me a sense of purpose. Maybe it's just a distraction - something to keep away the existential dread, but so what, because nothing has intrinsic value, this purpose is the best possible purpose for me.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look into it!

As an IT person, I am slightly jealous of people who can, at the end of the day, point at a physical thing that they have created.

At the end of my day I often feel that I have just kept the cogs grinding for another day. I do feel that my work is "important", and I'm good at it, and the money surely improves my quality of life, but it'd sure be nice to be outside sometimes in the real world digging a hole or planting a tree or something, not just the endless arranging of remote electrons.

As also an IT person, I agree! :)

Frankly what you describe is exactly why I started building real things as a hobby.

> But what happens when you can't attribute meaning to anything? Do you revert to religion or suicide (Those were the three options for camus)?

Is this not the basis for The Myth of Sisyphus? If I recall correctly, Camus rejects both religion and suicide as ultimately absurd.

No, the universe is absurd. The response to absurdity is giving up (death, credulous belief) or acceptance and defining meaning.

Neither. He reject them both.

When you can't attribute meaning to anything, Camus says, according to some of my self-interpretation, that you have to live while accepting the triviality of it all. Live while acknowledging death is a perfectly valid alternative and nothing is really stopping you committing suicide. But only when you are on that edge are you truly living,

Is this attitude something you are satisfied to stay with, or is it something you are interested in changing? Is your end goal to eventually be something like most people who are able to attribute meaning to experiences and stuff? I am assuming that you did all those things (travelling, family, etc) because you thought you'd get some sense of fulfilment out of them.

It's an honest question. I can imagine that a life without meaning would feel, well... meaningless.

>In a finite physical universe

I am pretty existential too, so I agree with you generally...but I'm not sure what this clause has to do with the rest of what you said.

- finite: Infinity is weird. It's very hard to make arguments that hold when infinite resources are in the picture. Finite also includes the time dimension. If you have infinite time and/or space, intrinsic meaning may be possible, but I really have no idea.

- physical: That there is no other plane of existence to progress towards, heaven or enlightenment or anything else similar to those.

- universe: Whatever it is that we inhabit - multiverse, universe, inside of a black hole, we're not quite sure yet as far as I understand the physics (which isn't very far at all unfortunately. It is fascinating though)

In your second clause i think perhaps you mean materialist[|ic] (or maybe physicalist) not physical. A soul, heaven, or other spiritual entities or spaces, aren't necessarily incompatible with a physical universe.

'tis a fair point, thanks.

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