A Nihilist's Guide to Meaning

I've never read this guy's writing before but in this article I think he is way over-intellectualizing things.

Meaning is whatever you want it to be. Some people find meaning in easing the suffering of others. Some people find meaning in raising children who will raise children, etc. even if in the fullness of time they will all cease to exist. Some people find meaning in really good sushi. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. When I eat really good red snapper nigiri I experience pleasure. That is a real joy that meant something to me in the moment.

The big picture of the entirety of time and space means nothing because I don't live in that full reality. I live in a small pocket of time in a small pocket of space because I am a tiny being.

I think, that meaning can be only defined in the case, when one is immortal. If I'm mortal, everything I do, good or bad, is meaningless for consciousness, because it will cease to exist and everything that will happen after death will have no effect on it.

Any meaning, that's is defined while one is mortal is no more than illusion, in which people immerse themselves for whatever reason.

> Science taught me that it's all just atoms and the void, so there can't be any deeper point or purpose to the whole thing; the kind of meaning most people yearn for — Ultimate Meaning — simply doesn't exist.

I don't think that is something science can teach you. Science can give you the scientific method, but answering the question "Is the scientific method the only valid means of knowledge?" is philosophy not science. It seems the author is trying to smuggle in a particular philosophy under the guise of science.

I've never had an issue valuing my life knowing that it has no eternally persistent meaning. A poor analogy, but I like to explain a finite life's meaning by asking if a movie is any less enjoyable knowing that it's going to end.

Sure, eventually our existence is rendered meaningless but that doesn't make it meaningless for me, now. Call that an illusion if you want, but it's as concrete as anything you can prove. Besides, what would a "not-ultimately-meaningless" existence look like? I haven't heard any proposals that sound appealing to me.

I agree. One workaround is to identify with your family or humanity instead of just yourself, then there is a shot at immortality. There are lots of instances of individuals dying in service of a greater good, such as the amoeba Dictyostelid, which when food runs out, climb on top of each other to form a stalk and then die, allowing the rest to climb to the top and form a spore which then explodes and spreads the rest of the amoeba toward greener pastures. Depending on the lifecycle stage, the Dictyostelid takes on the form of a group of individuals, a single animal-like creature, or a single plant like creature. Pretty amazing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyostelid