Legacy / meaning of life

[Lucio]

Only in base 13, What is 6 by 9, in base 10 its 54, need to be careful of mistakes like that they could cost you eternity.

Or ya know, it could have been an alternative Earth that wasn't *quite* the same as the original

[MSIC]

Ah but there is a heaven however its reserved for the atheists as they are the one group that will not enjoy it.

It's off the O.P. topic, but if heaven and hell are divided into activities such as sex, drugs, rock n roll, and all the vices (ie Las Vegas), and the other is quiet peaceful meditation (eg a spa weekend), but that I enjoy the vices, then which is hell and which one is heaven ??

Anywho... back on topic.

The other thing for me that I decided some years ago, going in to my 20's, was that the path i'd chosen wasnt too fulfilling, as I saw it. I was lucky enough that i hadnt really got a full career started at that time (in IT as it happened), and was able to change paths quite dramatically into one that I now regularly am involved in the give and take of many people's lives, which gives me a clear sense of satisfaction and achievement.

Try doing something like occasional volunteer work (helping disabled kids with horseriding is a popular one) or take a long holiday and do some brief V.S.O. work or something - you might find that giving is all that you are missing.

Blimey, I sound like a BBC infomercial.

[Saracen]

....

Do you ever think about your legacy / a higher purpose in life? I don't necessarily mean to imply any religious leanings (being an atheist myself) but never-the-less I occasionally struggle with purpose / meaning around the daily grind and was wondering if other hexites had similar thoughts, specifically around what you are doing with your life work wise , work vs life balance and what you feel you should be doing.... And whether or not you feel you will be able to to look back with a level of satisfaction / pride later in life...
....

I have thought about it many times over the years, and I've reached a few settled personal conclusions

• Any of my conclusions could be wrong. Much is hypothesis and either unproven, or more likely, unprovable, so all else is in that context
  
  
• "God" is a man-made construct borne of a deep desire for there to be a purpose, whether there actually is or not, and has then been hijacked as a control mechanism and distorted beyond all reason over a long period of time
  
  
• Even given the last point, if the "God" concept brings people peace or happiness, who am I to object? We each reach our own peace, or we don't, with that concept.
  
  
• "Higher meaning"? Given that we each are a small collection of very ephemeral cells living in a tiny slice of even known time, on a trivial dirt speck in a minor galaxy on the outer edges of the butt-end of nowhere, it's hard to conceive of what higher purpose might be, so it's hard to work on achieving it.
  
  
• Can an amoeba sees stars or listen to Mozart? Can it see or hear? If it can't, it could be missing out on some of the most beautiful aspects of creation. Can an ant understand the sub-atomic structure of matter, or the interaction of chemicals on the human brain? It's blind to concepts it has no way to detect or experience, and we don't know what it might be that what we don't know, either.
  
  
• If a "higher purpose" exists, do we have the means of detecting what it might involve, or do we have the intellectual capacity to understand? Can that ant understand calculus?
  
  
• Given that we're those brief-living collections of atoms that flicker into "life", whatever that is, on such an insignificant speck of planetary dust, it's kinda hard to conceive how we might be in any way significant to any "god" capable of fully understanding the vastness of creation, much less the purpose behind it.
  
  
• Given the nature of the vastness of space and time, the concept that anything any of us might do, say or achieve could be significant to some higher purpose seems to be unlikely to the point of being ridiculous, not to mention distinctly egotistical
  
  
• A small rock pool in the rocks next to a beach is supremely important to the life that exists in it, and if it dries out, or someone tips a bucket of acid in it, that is very significant to that life. But would the inhabitants of another rock pool on the same beach even notice, let alone be affected by it? Would a whale swimming in the depths, a thousand miles away be affected? If the Sun exploded and vaporised Earth, would any other life forms on planets in other galaxies notice or care, much less be affected by it, and if they aren't, would "god"? Assuming, of course, that life does actually exist elsewhere.
  
  
• We are alone, and for the vast majority of us, our lives affect those contemporaneous with us, and personally close to us, and that's about all. A few have a lasting effect, like those inventing cures for disease, but even that assumes that if they hadn't invented it someone else wouldn't have come along and done it. And if the Sun explodes, neither mankind's best nor worst in history will then matter much to anyone, anywhere.
  
  
• So live your lives with at least one eye on the notion that any day may be your last, because it may, and that any notion of an afterlife is at best, speculative. It may be, or it may not, and none of us know. Enjoy today, for tomorrow may never happen, but provide for the fact that tomorrow also may happen. Treat loved ones well, for if you screw it up and tomorrow never comes, for you or for them, you'll regret it and be able to do nothing. And try to live your life to the full, without harming anyone else. If there's a higher purpose than that, it escapes me.
  
  
• Never assume you have all the answers, or "know" something just because you believe it. You may be wrong .... and so might I.
  
  
• Finally, for all the above, I once again refer you to point 1 above.
  
  
  
  
  

[chuckskull]

Volunteer work is very rewarding and for those that think the meaning of life is to reproduce, a great way to meet girls

[Saracen]

Volunteer work is very rewarding and for those that think the meaning of life is to reproduce, a great way to meet girls

Great idea. I'll ask the wife if she minds me starting.

[stevie lee]

Volunteer work is very rewarding and for those that think the meaning of life is to reproduce, a great way to meet girls

shopmobility volunteer for 5 years. theres plenty of grannies around


best thing about it is the grand-daughters come in with them

seriously though, I do the volounteering because i like to see the happy look on the faces of people who cant walk very far or atall when they take to the streets in a mobility scooter. I bring joy to their lives.

________

My attitude towards life is that ive survived 3 car crashes, 2 at high speed and i'm still here albeit not quite right in the head, If i can survive them, i can survive anything. i'm not reckless though, the crashes did hurt

hence my motto: dont rush through life, you'll only reach the end quicker.

[petercook7]

life is cruel, evil, being human and knowing your going to be soil one day isnt good, on top of that getting old losing your youth hair teeth ( well no so much this as the tech is being commercialised as i type), getting to a point where your unable to walk skin getting old etc.. we havent reached the technological point to fix this yet.

But i always fear of getting old, being an old man and the most depressing thing is watch those young girls in mini skirts showing off their stuff and thinking i once was able to taste that. this might sound sad Me and my mates have already started to save up funds for this case, young hookers when your 70 hey thats life make the most of it because it'll fly bye and your past it.

[SeriousSam]

This is an interesting and somewhat divisive question because neither of the two “perspectives” you can have actually lead to a definitive answer. Essentially the “universe” was either created for a reason or the whole thing is just down to probability and chance. In the case of the former you end up with religion and all the conflict that brings as each individual believes his view or faith is the right one. The latter means that ultimately nothing is of consequence and every individuals self defined purpose is equally as valid as any other, in as much as they are all worthless. It also means that my life or anyone else’s is no more important than that of any other species on the planet, so killing another person is no different to swatting a fly.

Obviously some of you will take issue with that last statement arguing that our awareness of self and ability to reason sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Now whilst that much may be true it doesn’t change the fact that we will all ultimately go the same way and in time all evidence of both us and them will be wiped from the face of the universe irrespective of what we do mean that in reality we are just different forms of the same thing, i.e. life. All awareness and cognitive power does is give rise to the arrogant notion that we are special, e.g. the concept of the sanctity of life, and thus have an elevated position in the world.

Now human society could not function were everyone to act as if everything was meaningless, as it would just be chaos. So in some ways it is actually fortunate that we are both aware and have a number of inbuilt genetic “controls” to ensure that our species survives. The downside of this is that in combination with our emotions they distort both our perception of reality and how we think about it. Consequently every single one of us is in fact delusional, in some way or another. Ironically this is part of the reason why we have gone from living in caves to walking on the moon in such a short space of time, it being both one of our greatest assets and worst faults.

Still, if human society is to evolve then we will have to accept that there is in all probability no underlying reason for our existence. This will mean coming to terms with the fact that we only get one shot at life and thus should make the most of it, without of course causing adversely affecting anyone else. The downside of which is that if you aren’t happy or don’t make the most of it then the only person to blame is yourself, rather than abdicating responsibility for it due to “divine will”. More importantly we will also have to find something to fill the “gap” that a lack of purpose creates which isn’t material greed, lust for power or an empty tribal identity e.g. sporting fanaticism. Whether we could actually remain “human” and make the necessary changes is actually debatable we’d have to undo / change some fairly significant aspects of our biology.

In regards to the original question then I do not believe that there is any great meaning to it all and in the past there were times when this bothered me. However these days I have learned to not worry about it as to do so is both pointless and depressing. More importantly you end up missing the fact that the universe doesn’t need a point in order to be wondrous, whether that is the natural world we live in, the epic scale of the cosmos or the unimaginable chaos of the quantum. As for a legacy then providing I’ve managed to enjoy life doing most of the things I wanted, sharing it with friends and making their lives happier without doing too much damage in the process then that is enough for me. Admittedly my job means that I have constant reminders of the things I have achieved as it is all about ensuring that new food products are launched within time and budget. So I don’t have to rely on external events to provide me with a sense of achievement. Of course that doesn’t stop me from seeking extra challenges outside of work as you have to step outside of your comfort zone every so often.

Kalniel
As a scientist and philosopher I would actually disagree with your point about science making life better for people, in as much as its application rather than the actual pursuit of knowledge itself. This may sound contrary but on balance it has made things worse for us. As an example the main reason that a lot of developing countries are in such a mess is because we have given them lots of technology (to make them into consumers), without actually thinking about its impact on their way of life. Increasing like life expectancy and reducing infant mortality rate are on the face of it positive steps, but not if the population doesn’t adjust its behaviour in terms of the average number of offspring per family.