Some people gaze up at the stars and wonder what it’s all about. Me, I gaze up at the stars and wonder why people wonder what it’s all about. Why do people do this? It’s not at all obvious. We’re animals—specifically, apes—and pondering the meaning of life is a strange thing for an ape to do. It doesn’t get us food or sex. It doesn’t keep us safe from predators. It captures our limited attention without providing any obvious, Darwinian payoff. So maybe the real mystery isn’t the meaning of life, but
I don’t question the meaning of life anymore, because I know the answer. It’s because I’m a curious bastard who likes to understand things and also likes a challenge.
What these types you speak of don’t want to tell you is that you create your own meaning and project it onto the world. They just want you to believe what they believe instead.
Nice post, David. I agree that the meaning of life is bullshit (in that there is no single answer to the question), although I'm not so sure the question is bullshit. I suspect that it's usually an attempt to articulate an actual epistemic problem (basically, wtf should I be doing with my life).
I don't think the distinction is really between intellectuals and the working class, although if there's empirical evidence of that I'd be happy to reconsider. There is evidence that people who are high in trait "positive schizotypy" are more likely to be on a "search for meaning" (see here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213456 ) and I put forward an explanation for this finding in the section called "High level tinkering" from my paper last year (here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35816687/ ), though that explanation probably wouldn't make sense outside of the context of the whole paper.
We are not only apes. We are very groupish apes. Apes who care about meaning are much better at forming groups than apes who only care about status, fruits and sex.
Working class people are in survival mode, and don't have mental bandwidth to dwell on meaning of life. After physical basics are satisfied, the mind/consciousness wishes to live + thrive to a limitless realm. I'm guessing.
I don’t question the meaning of life anymore, because I know the answer. It’s because I’m a curious bastard who likes to understand things and also likes a challenge.
What these types you speak of don’t want to tell you is that you create your own meaning and project it onto the world. They just want you to believe what they believe instead.
Nice post, David. I agree that the meaning of life is bullshit (in that there is no single answer to the question), although I'm not so sure the question is bullshit. I suspect that it's usually an attempt to articulate an actual epistemic problem (basically, wtf should I be doing with my life).
I don't think the distinction is really between intellectuals and the working class, although if there's empirical evidence of that I'd be happy to reconsider. There is evidence that people who are high in trait "positive schizotypy" are more likely to be on a "search for meaning" (see here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213456 ) and I put forward an explanation for this finding in the section called "High level tinkering" from my paper last year (here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35816687/ ), though that explanation probably wouldn't make sense outside of the context of the whole paper.
This was so edgy I shaved with it. Fun to read, though.
We are not only apes. We are very groupish apes. Apes who care about meaning are much better at forming groups than apes who only care about status, fruits and sex.
Working class people are in survival mode, and don't have mental bandwidth to dwell on meaning of life. After physical basics are satisfied, the mind/consciousness wishes to live + thrive to a limitless realm. I'm guessing.
https://markelliottmd.substack.com/p/the-meaning-of-life