Ask HN: What's the Point of Life? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#71

Post by omnicognate » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:18 PM UTC

If I were to subject you to enormous pain you would cry out for it to stop. If I said "Why? Why does it matter if you're hurting? The universe is vast, you're a speck and you'll die soon enough anyway, as will we all" it would be entirely irrelevant. You'd still cry out for the pain to stop. It would still matter very much to you.

Just as "there's no point" is of no consolation in this situation, it should be of no detriment to your experience of happiness, beauty, love, fulfilment, etc.

People who decide that "there's no point" (for some usually ill-defined, abstract interpretation of that phrase), and conclude that this has some actual bearing on their lives, are deluded in a way that leads to nothing good. (I say this having been such a person.)

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#72

Post by Adamantisa » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

serjester wrote: post #24

“What makes life worth living? No child asks itself that question. To children, life is self-evident. Life goes without saying: whether it is good or bad makes no difference. This is because children don’t see the world, don’t observe the world, don’t contemplate the world, but are so deeply immersed in the world that they don’t distinguish between it and their own selves. Not until … a distance appears between what…

Do you want to be a child?

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#73

Post by tgflynn » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

loafer-project wrote: post #61

tgflynn wrote: post #7

There are some non-dualists who claim to have an answer to that question. Basically according to them consciousness divided itself in order to experience all the various forms of existence and from the point of view of the (illusory) individual self the goal is to discover that they are in truth nothing other than primordial consciousness (ie. what some call God). Personally I find that explanation circular and unsat…

Doesn‘t every game end where it started?

Games don't usually involve inflicting suffering on unwilling participants.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#74

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:19 PM UTC

undoware wrote: post #28

I think "attempting to forestall the emerging ecological catastrophe" is a good-enough placeholder for the next few generations. You can worry about the meaning of life after you have secured its continuity. Prioritize.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#75

Post by bdowling » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

nine_zeros wrote: post #10

To ensure the titles in your document are all indented left and are colored in company colors. /micromanager rant

> … company colors.

So, enforcing group identity and tribalism, basically. A lot of people do think of that as the point of life. Being a part of a group and living for the benefit of the group over oneself.

The religious fervor over enforcing style guides makes more sense if it is tied to people’s world view and philosophy of life.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#76

Post by nonameiguess » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:20 PM UTC

I'm not sure Hacker News is uniquely good at philosophy. Maybe better read than the median web community.

Life doesn't have a point. All life is different and the only common purpose is to make more of itself and keep going. That isn't a "point" so much as the only behavior that can possibly be self-propagating, in the sense that any form of life that didn't prioritize it would be out-competed and driven extinct by a different form of life that did.

There is no reason that should define you, though. We're a grand cosmic accident. Make of it what you will. I try to find meaning where I can, but if you're looking for grand revelatory purpose, you probably need to find religion, which unfortunately requires a mindset you might not have. I know I don't. I'll be gone soon and it won't make any difference at that point whether I ever existed at all from my no longer continuing first-person perspective. I hope it will matter that I existed to others who outlive me, but they'll soon be gone, too. This universe will end and all information ever created will be lost forever.

Nonetheless, right now, I'm getting a chance to exist, and I'm glad for it. I will be there forever, a tiny indistinguishable speck in the four-dimensional firmament, but there, and right now, from my perspective, I'm here and it's better than not being here.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#77

Post by jgwil2 » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

mcot2 wrote: post #2

I have no idea what the point is but the answer is 42.

I saw a post the other day claiming that, since 42 corresponds to "*" in ASCII, and "*" is often used to represent a wildcard value, the meaning of life is whatever you want it to be.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#78

Post by hprotagonist » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:21 PM UTC

What is the difference Between your experience of Existence And that of a saint?
The saint knows That the spiritual path Is a sublime chess game with God
And that the Beloved Has just made such a Fantastic Move
That the saint is now continually Tripping over Joy And bursting out in Laughter And saying, "I Surrender"!

Whereas, my dear, I am afraid you still think You have a thousand serious moves.

Hafiz

A common thread tying together mystically-inclined philosophers across a wide range of traditions is that one of the reasonable answers for "how then should i live" is "in praise and joy". Look around. Say thanks. Act accordingly.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#79

Post by WJW » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:22 PM UTC

tgflynn wrote: post #59

WJW wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe it or not, some people actually enjoy life.

Those who are lucky may think they enjoy it, for a time, until their bodies wear out and everyone they know dies. But even then their enjoyment comes at the expense of the suffering of other beings.

If you start off with the assumption that life is suffering and any enjoyment is a temporary illusion, no amount of evidence suggesting the opposite will convince you otherwise. But simply looking around will reveal much beauty and happiness, plain for all to see amongst the (also existing) gloom and depression.

Not everyone sees life as unending torment.

Re: Ask HN: What's the Point of Life?

#80

Post by at_a_remove » Thu, Oct 14, 2021, 5:22 PM UTC

As I have grown older and some of my vim and vigor have waned, the momentum that has hustled me past obstacles and over life's hurdles has similarly decreased, and I find myself wondering the same. The objects I have collected have lost their pallor, experiences for which I have paid through the nose left me hollow, the connections I once thought complex are shallow.

Through more than one circumstance of birth I have been forced on the proverbial path less trodden and I can't say it has been amazingly fulfilling. Of course, one can look at another and suspect how wonderful or terrible their life is, but that is all you have, suspicion. Friends who are married, friends who have children, some ... seem satisfied?

And then things go on and you become closer to the end of life than the start of it, more doors are closed than are open, and you wonder what -- if anything -- lies between here and the final trainstop, and if it is indeed worthwhile. You get a distant Peggy Lee "Is That All There Is?" detachment. The philosophers will tell you to assign some kind of arbitrary value and meaning and it is a bit like being thrown off of an infinite cliff and being told that you should assign the bottom of your soles as "h = 0" in that it lacks satisfaction as an answer.

I haven't anything to offer but a nod of recognition.