Why do we exist?
Modern science has long shattered the foundation of all the grand ideologies or religious narratives. Humankind recognizes that the world has always been free and unfettered. It exists simply because it exists. This is an unchangeable fact. Everything is governed by objective laws alone, without any particular meaning of existence. The sanctity of culture and morality is also collapsing. The so-called ancestral rites, rituals and institutions are merely human constructs - they can be deconstructed, redesigned, and mastered.
For religion and ideology, mysticism is dead. We no longer need to sanctify anything.
We realize one thing, that life has never had any inherent meaning. We do not need to redeem the holy city for the so-called God (such as the Crusades to the East), nor do we have the mission to participate in a long and grueling battle between good and evil. There is nothing remarkable about the ancestral rites, and violating them will not lead to obscure punishment.
Everything seems to have lost its meaning, and the meaning of meaning itself.
Our actions also seem to be just the rippling of electric signals, the effects of proteins and hormones in neurons.
However, one thing, with its objectively unique characteristics, although still without intrinsic meaning, can have acquired value.
The wisdom of life is truly a miracle. I admit that its units are just a pile of twisted and folded neurons. But the result produced by such an aggregation of macromolecules, as far as our footprint reaches, is so unique, especially the higher degree of intelligence. In the stacking of astronomical numbers and objective matter of all possibilities within the reach of human footprint, only this type of stacking pattern can give intelligence to humankind.
Some things are indeed driven by hormones, just as we always want to pet dogs when we see them. If I were transformed into other forms by methods such as uploading me to a computer while maintaining my ability to think, I would probably lose the desire to pet cats and dogs. But I still want to pursue knowledge. I want to know the truth of this universe, as well as all the mathematics and science that transcend this universe. Even if I have already gotten rid of the shackles of the human body. This is the choice of my consciousness. You ask me why I want to pursue knowledge? Objectively, of course, there is no "special meaning", as for subjectively... My current knowledge and ability to express in words cannot express my feelings, but I do "want to" after getting rid of the "shackles" of the body, my mind still "wants to", and that's enough.
This is the aesthetic feeling, the power of natural laws, the cold elegance of logic and reason that the mind can gradually perceive acquired. I know it has no meaning, but I like it.
The world is empty, and emptiness exists objectively, because there is no such thing as an entity called "meaning" in the first place. How can it not be empty? But the uniqueness of wisdom is the sword that pierces the subjective emptiness that we possess.
As for you? Where did you find your own aesthetic feelings?
Or rather, wisdom - the ability to think itself is the greatest "beauty" and the pillar that fills the subjective emptiness.
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