Notes on the question of the meaning of life
2024-10-04 15:30:00 +07:00 by Mark Smith
A few nights ago I was approached by a young man who was perhaps in his 20s. He sat near me, seemed very agitated. He started asking me questions about why I was here in Vietnam. We chatted for a while, though I left him to do most of the talking because that seemed like the most prudent thing to do.
He had spent time in northern Europe, and spoke pretty good english. He seemed to be perhaps having some issues with friends or family. He said he had previously had anxiety issues. I've been through that age and it sure can be confusing at times. I listenned and suggested a few things, I can’t say I gave the best of advice over and above 'live your life'.
Towards the end of the conversation he asked me what I thought was the meaning of life. Quite a big question, one of the biggest. I didn’t have a very good answer. The context in which he asked it was a little strange. After hearing about my situation, how I’d gotten stuck here during COVID, he had asked me if I needed any help. I said yes, but the how is the less obvious thing, I’m open to ideas but I’ve found it’s rare that people are actually able to help.
Anyway, he said his question was his gift to me. I’m really not sure how exactly his gift was supposed to help me. Seems like it would just distract me even more than I already am by this crazy world, taking up even more of my time which I can never get back. But it is an interesting question that I haven’t spent a whole lot of time thinking about properly. So I did spend a short while pondering it, and made a few notes. I’m publishing them here, because though it’s not something I want to spend a lot of time on right now, perhaps in the future I will, and I’ll have this post to return to. And who knows maybe it will spark some ideas in others.
- Last night’s what is meaning of life bloke
- What does ‘meaning of’ mean? Is it more than just the dictionary definition of a word?
- Are we saying meaning of a specific life or life in general?
- Isn’t it a strange question to ask? You don’t ask what the meaning of a table is do you?
- His answer: pussy, because dick and pussy make life
- So does ‘meaning of’ mean ‘leads to’
- Lenses to interpret the question
- Philosophical - the purpose of life, how do you know what anything means. When a particular set of events happen we often say, such and such happened, and this other thing, so that means this other situation is likely going to happen. Eg predicting the direction of the tech scene. How big can these collections of events get. Could they be increased in size to an entire human life? Can a human life have a theme / a purpose? Would it be different for everyone? Would there be a common higher level quality that all lives share in this respect?
- Scientific - What is the purpose of life from the perspective of the universe? cells, RNA, DNA all arguably examples of life who’s purpose seems to be to create higher and higher complexity life systems. Is human life the final stage, or does there exist an even higher life form that human life is creating, or on the way to create. Are we trying to figure that out? Maybe that is our purpose right now?
- Comic - dick and pussy
His answer was that the meaning of life is pussy, because dicks and pussys create life. Presumably the meaning of life for a woman, in this paradigm would be dick. I think he’d gotten this from someone in his entourage. I suggested to him that perhaps they were joking.
I’m not totally convinced by his argument, but there is a certain simplicity to it that is quite refreshing. For me the whole question of the meaning of life has always seemed like something much more grandiose, and I’ve tried to jot down some of the thoughts that occurred to me. I like that there is this simple paradigm, but also that there could be much more to it.
To be honest it was kind of a weird situation, but I feel like it merited at least a short blog post. Might be something worth thinking about if I ever get unstuck from this terrible situation I am in. Having to figure it out right now is a big ask.
As for the young man in question, I wish him all the best on his journey.
Take it easy everyone :)