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Ask HN: What is the purpose of life in your point of view?

11 points by ghostpirate 9y ago

Nomentatus 9y ago
To distract you while it reproduces itself.
altsyset 9y ago
The only purpose of life is giving purpose and meaning to your own life and collectively. Most prefer just accepting a collective purpose, meaning or goal in life. This will eventually lead to self doubt. Few prefer defining their purpose and influencing others with it. We call them leaders, artists, visionaries etc. Some prefer manipulation of lack of understanding of purpose. They become a leading to force in preaching things they don't understand themselves.
howscrewedami 9y ago
This question can have multiple meanings, for example: 1. What should we do with our lives. 2. Why is there life on this universe. For question 1: I don't thing there's a single purpose that fits everyone. However, this doesn't mean that nothing matters and we are free to whatever we want - we are human beings after all, and there are some things that humans should not do. The obvious ones would be rape and senseless killing. For question 2: life is just a thing that exists. Why do things exist? Why are there things in the universe, or even a universe at all? Truly mind blowing stuff in my opinion. These 2 questions are probably related, not sure how.
tabeth 9y ago
Happiness. However, you'd want to maximize this through the longest possible time frame.
sp527 9y ago
The only objective ‘purpose’ seems to be the evolutionary imperative to successfully reproduce, but I’m not convinced that even that one matters. Other than that, life is basically a choose-your-own-adventure game with rules/constraints superimposed by the nature of our reality.
SirLJ 9y ago
For my own life is for me, my family and friends to be happy, which involves a lot of money unfortunately :-) For the life itself, the only purpose is reproduction And the meaning of life is 42 (in case you need to include it in your paper as well ;-)
jklein11 9y ago
In the words of Philip J Fry, "Just sitting here turning quarters into urine"
markcmyers 9y ago
The question is humorously anthropocentric. Purpose is meaningful only to humans. Life occurs independently of human notions.
dragonbonheur 9y ago
It's the reduction of uncertainty.
thebossbiatch 9y ago
There's a lot of work on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life
Mz 9y ago
Well, according to the Christian Bible, god was lonely, so created humankind. If you believe that origin story, then our purpose is to be entertainment for a cosmic intelligence.
pks016 9y ago
Life generally: To create new life and follow rules that nature and society have created until a threshold reach. Human life: Do whatever role/job you like. Be happy and die at last.
muzani 9y ago
I explore God's world, extracting meaning from God's creations. A painter doesn't try to imitate the colors, lighting, subject. A food painter would try to capture the senses - taste, moisture, saltiness, spiciness, temperature. A painter of a scene would try to extract emotions; the fear and chaos of a battle, the sexual tension in a romance. I choose to observe things in the world and extract what they're really about. I don't simply build features and observe analytics. I understand the pains of a user, the emotions, the process they work through it, their frustrations and joys. I continually try to fix problems, and fix it a little better day after day. Sometimes I choose myself as the subject for extracting meaning. I wonder why my own body and mind is so flawed and what can be done to make it better. How to heal faster, to run better, what triggers emotions like fear and procrastination. I pick one thing I'm bad at and see what makes me improve on it. Or observe why I do sins even when I know I shouldn't. I pick these flaws up, experiment and improve, or see what doesn't work. I also experiment with different philosophies and ideals, plant them as a New Year's Resolution, and see how that works out over a year. There's a good deal of enjoyment when you successfully extract meaning from something and get better and better at it each year. So, recursively, the purpose of my life is to get better at finding the purpose of my life.
billconan 9y ago
the purpose of my life is to fulfill my curiosity.
hacknat 9y ago
My purpose is to derive as much joy as I can.
stealthcat 9y ago
For starters let's start with this question: Where do you came from? Do you believe humankind started with Adam, or do you believe humankind started with _millions_ of years of evolution? If the latter, how much you trust statistical physics and modern science and the variance of carbon-12 dating and the publications of the researchers themselves? I took the revealed knowledge route, study Islam, study Quran, study Hadeeth. Glad I did. As side bonus my logic, reasoning and critical thinking have improved a lot. In the end it is your choice what to believe after witnessing proofs after proofs, after proofs. Choose wisely.
foxyv 9y ago
To find new, interesting, and possibly tasty things.
mabynogy 9y ago
Reproduction.
hkmurakami 9y ago
Listening to and following your mind.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
nurettin 9y ago
Purpose of life is to collect iron and feed it's cells with oxygen using that iron. Unless it is anaerobic. Then I have no idea.
makerleader 9y ago
“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that he is who is being asked." - Viktor Frankl
miguelrochefort 9y ago
The purpose of life is efficiency.
JSeymourATL 9y ago
"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy". - Rabindranath Tagore
tugberkk 9y ago
For me, there is no purpose. I mean not in a general sense. Maybe you can find yourself a purpose but I don't believe "there is".
kesava 9y ago
I like the Vedic representation of primordial debts wonderfully elucidated in David Graeber’s Debt: 5000 years of history. The purpose of life is to repay three debts - 1) Repay the ancestral debt by becoming one. 2) Repay the teacher/sage debt by becoming a learned one. 3) Repay the societal debt by doing good to others. (Mr. Graeber obviously does a much better job of summarizing them, but you get the general idea)

11 points by ghostpirate 9y ago

To distract you while it reproduces itself.

The only purpose of life is giving purpose and meaning to your own life and collectively. Most prefer just accepting a collective purpose, meaning or goal in life. This will eventually lead to self doubt. Few prefer defining their purpose and influencing others with it. We call them leaders, artists, visionaries etc. Some prefer manipulation of lack of understanding of purpose. They become a leading to force in preaching things they don't understand themselves.

howscrewedami 9y ago

This question can have multiple meanings, for example: 1. What should we do with our lives. 2. Why is there life on this universe. For question 1: I don't thing there's a single purpose that fits everyone. However, this doesn't mean that nothing matters and we are free to whatever we want - we are human beings after all, and there are some things that humans should not do. The obvious ones would be rape and senseless killing. For question 2: life is just a thing that exists. Why do things exist? Why are there things in the universe, or even a universe at all? Truly mind blowing stuff in my opinion. These 2 questions are probably related, not sure how.

tabeth 9y ago

Happiness. However, you'd want to maximize this through the longest possible time frame.

sp527 9y ago

The only objective ‘purpose’ seems to be the evolutionary imperative to successfully reproduce, but I’m not convinced that even that one matters. Other than that, life is basically a choose-your-own-adventure game with rules/constraints superimposed by the nature of our reality.

SirLJ 9y ago

For my own life is for me, my family and friends to be happy, which involves a lot of money unfortunately :-) For the life itself, the only purpose is reproduction And the meaning of life is 42 (in case you need to include it in your paper as well ;-)

jklein11 9y ago

In the words of Philip J Fry, "Just sitting here turning quarters into urine"

markcmyers 9y ago

The question is humorously anthropocentric. Purpose is meaningful only to humans. Life occurs independently of human notions.

dragonbonheur 9y ago

It's the reduction of uncertainty.

thebossbiatch 9y ago

There's a lot of work on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meaning_of_life

Mz 9y ago

Well, according to the Christian Bible, god was lonely, so created humankind. If you believe that origin story, then our purpose is to be entertainment for a cosmic intelligence.

pks016 9y ago

Life generally: To create new life and follow rules that nature and society have created until a threshold reach. Human life: Do whatever role/job you like. Be happy and die at last.

muzani 9y ago

I explore God's world, extracting meaning from God's creations. A painter doesn't try to imitate the colors, lighting, subject. A food painter would try to capture the senses - taste, moisture, saltiness, spiciness, temperature. A painter of a scene would try to extract emotions; the fear and chaos of a battle, the sexual tension in a romance. I choose to observe things in the world and extract what they're really about. I don't simply build features and observe analytics. I understand the pains of a user, the emotions, the process they work through it, their frustrations and joys. I continually try to fix problems, and fix it a little better day after day. Sometimes I choose myself as the subject for extracting meaning. I wonder why my own body and mind is so flawed and what can be done to make it better. How to heal faster, to run better, what triggers emotions like fear and procrastination. I pick one thing I'm bad at and see what makes me improve on it. Or observe why I do sins even when I know I shouldn't. I pick these flaws up, experiment and improve, or see what doesn't work. I also experiment with different philosophies and ideals, plant them as a New Year's Resolution, and see how that works out over a year. There's a good deal of enjoyment when you successfully extract meaning from something and get better and better at it each year. So, recursively, the purpose of my life is to get better at finding the purpose of my life.

billconan 9y ago

the purpose of my life is to fulfill my curiosity.

hacknat 9y ago

My purpose is to derive as much joy as I can.

stealthcat 9y ago

For starters let's start with this question: Where do you came from? Do you believe humankind started with Adam, or do you believe humankind started with _millions_ of years of evolution? If the latter, how much you trust statistical physics and modern science and the variance of carbon-12 dating and the publications of the researchers themselves? I took the revealed knowledge route, study Islam, study Quran, study Hadeeth. Glad I did. As side bonus my logic, reasoning and critical thinking have improved a lot. In the end it is your choice what to believe after witnessing proofs after proofs, after proofs. Choose wisely.

foxyv 9y ago

To find new, interesting, and possibly tasty things.

mabynogy 9y ago

Reproduction.

hkmurakami 9y ago

Listening to and following your mind.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

nurettin 9y ago

Purpose of life is to collect iron and feed it's cells with oxygen using that iron. Unless it is anaerobic. Then I have no idea.

makerleader 9y ago

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that he is who is being asked." - Viktor Frankl

miguelrochefort 9y ago

The purpose of life is efficiency.

JSeymourATL 9y ago

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy". - Rabindranath Tagore

tugberkk 9y ago

For me, there is no purpose. I mean not in a general sense. Maybe you can find yourself a purpose but I don't believe "there is".

kesava 9y ago

I like the Vedic representation of primordial debts wonderfully elucidated in David Graeber’s Debt: 5000 years of history. The purpose of life is to repay three debts - 1) Repay the ancestral debt by becoming one. 2) Repay the teacher/sage debt by becoming a learned one. 3) Repay the societal debt by doing good to others. (Mr. Graeber obviously does a much better job of summarizing them, but you get the general idea)