What is the meaning of life? (book, life lessons, collaborative)

November 30, 2004 7:18 PM

The Meaning of Life Projectis an attempt to get stories from everyday folks answering the question "what is the meaning of life?" for an eventual book. You only have until Friday to submit your own thoughts here, though I hope for the book's sake they have a blanket ban on mentions of puppy dogs, unicorns, and teddy bears.
posted by mathowie (20 comments total)

On behalf of the project, yes, we have the following bans:

42: A spam filter deletes all entries that say the meaning of life is "42." Not original.

Blatantly Lifetime-esque submissions.

This is a Chicken Soup for the Soul for intelligent people.
posted by echodolphin at 7:23 PM on November 30, 2004

a blanket ban on mentions of puppy dogs, unicorns, and teddy bears.

but, but, but...!
posted by quonsar at 7:31 PM on November 30, 2004

There should also be a ban on "quantum" and "emergent." Actually, let's extend that one to the entire web.
posted by vacapinta at 7:37 PM on November 30, 2004

42: A spam filter deletes all entries that say the meaning of life is "42." Not original.

I'll never forgive Douglas Adams for starting for starting that joke.
posted by magodesky at 7:41 PM on November 30, 2004

that's uncanny: i've been doing this with audio interviews with random people off and on for a while now. totally great that things like this happen. great site.
posted by moonbird at 7:42 PM on November 30, 2004

The "best" responses will be posted here for the world to view on October 31, 2004.

Curious. That's when I started posting my own argument on the question.

BTW, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything...not just life.

Oh no! vacapinta wants to censor my work.....aaaaahhh!
posted by wah at 7:57 PM on November 30, 2004

There should be a ban on entries that contain "God." Really not original.

Some of these are just plain disturbing.

As vah pointed out, 42 isn't the meaning of life. It's the answer to the question: "What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything?" My calculations suggest the meaning of life is a prime number less than 17.
posted by nixerman at 8:36 PM on November 30, 2004

I've always been confused by the question. I should state that I'm an atheist, so I don't believe in a "planner" behind everything. I am also inclined to take things literally. But "meaning"? Words have meaning. Symbols have meaning. To have meaning, something must by one thing while standing for something else. Life isn't a symbol, it's a process. How can a process mean something? A process just is.

Like I said, I am probably being too literal -- perhaps it's just an idiom. But I've always wondered why more people didn't ask "what's the purpose of life?" or "what's the goal of life?"
posted by grumblebee at 9:12 PM on November 30, 2004

grumblebee: a fair amount of submitters have taken this stance, correcting the question to address goals. this is why on the form it says or, how can life be made better?

this allows for just about everyone to submit something useful to the project; even if you don't believe in a big ol' plan as I do, the idea of a process lends itself to suggestions for improving that process.
posted by echodolphin at 9:24 PM on November 30, 2004

grumblebee: a fair amount of submitters have taken this stance, correcting the question to address goals. this is why on the form it says or, how can life be made better?

I like to take the question as "what is life good for?"

As a fundamentalist atheist, I'd say life is good for: making things, non-procreative fucking, laughter, love, cats, banjos, friends, the movie "Dark Star", stuff like that.

The question "what is the meaning of life?" is essentially meaningless.
posted by interrobang at 10:32 PM on November 30, 2004

The question of the meaning of life is the same as asking why there's something rather than nothing. If that isn't a meaningful metaphysical question, nothing is.
posted by shivohum at 10:57 PM on November 30, 2004

The question "What Is The Meaning Of Life?" most often implicitly refers only to Human Life.

If we take grumblebee's formulations "What Is The Purpose Of Life?" and "What's The Goal Of Life?" and apply those questions to all living things, not just Human Life, we must also ask ourselves this:

What Is The Goal of Every Living Thing?

And here is the answer: The Goal of Life is to Reproduce Itself.
If Life Didn't Reproduce Itself, There Would be No Life.

I'm not saying that if you personally don't reproduce, your life is meaningless. What I'm saying is reproduction is a biological goal that all forms of life share.

'How can life be made better?' is a different question that essentially asks "What do you enjoy doing during your life?" 'Better,' of course, is subjective.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 10:59 PM on November 30, 2004

The question of the meaning of life is the same as asking why there's something rather than nothing.

The thing here is meaning. Assigning meaning to why things are is assuming purpose. Why must there be a purpose? People "do it", people kill other people and occasionally create transcendentally beautiful things, people die. Nature it is elegantly simple.
posted by interrobang at 11:10 PM on November 30, 2004

Assigning meaning to why things are is assuming purpose.

Questioning why things are assumes there's a purpose, yes. You needn't inquire into purpose, I suppose, if you're happy with the deepest mysteries in life being utterly opaque, if you can live content mired in ignorance so profound the mind cannot begin to apprehend its dimensions.

Some of us want more. We may not get it, but we seek it nonetheless.
posted by shivohum at 11:27 PM on November 30, 2004

The meaning of life is to negate entropy, if only for a while.
posted by loquacious at 11:34 PM on November 30, 2004

I think "meaning" is very different from the notion that there is an inherent purpose. Meaning can be discovered, adopted, created, crafted, layered, accreted, remixed, internalized, rejected, and gifted to others; purpose implies a programmed function that should be followed or performed.
posted by rushmc at 11:36 PM on November 30, 2004

Is it to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of the women?

Wait no.. That's what's best in life.
posted by drpynchon at 11:59 PM on November 30, 2004

BTW, 42 is the answer to life, the universe, and everything...not just life.

If you want to get technical, 42 is the answer given by Deep Thought to "the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything." The question itself is unknowable, it and the answer being mutually exclusive in any given universe.

"So once you do know what the question actually is, you'll know what the answer means."
posted by rdub at 12:51 AM on December 1, 2004

The Purpose of Life, for the individual, is simply to be happy. Discovering what will bring you happiness, however, is another question...
posted by LordSludge at 8:15 AM on December 1, 2004

Discovering what will bring you happiness, however, is another question...

Ahh, that's why they built the Earth Mark VIII to derive the correct question using biological entities as slightly more advanced qubits.
posted by wah at 8:45 AM on December 2, 2004