What's your purpose?

[Kyle]

It's a weird question, right? And one that sets up the false notion (in my opinion) that people have to have a purpose. We don't contemplate on the purpose behind mosquitoes for the most part- they're just a creature that exists. And I suppose the same is true of humans. But since we're self-aware intelligenced creatures, these are questions we ponder. Why are we here? What's our purpose?

I think a lot of people answer this with religion (and in my opinion, it's the need for us to be able to answer this question that creates religions- and I don't mean that as an offense to anyone- just the viewpoint of an atheist). But I'm not religious, so that doesn't help me answer it.

I suppose I think my purpose is to be a good father and do what I can to make sure my kids are happy and prosperous. The most important part of that is being a good husband, so I think that's important also. But I recognize that this is a personal-biased view of someone that has children. And that there's plenty of folks who don't or can't have kids, so this seems like an alien concept to them.

I don't know. I'm just cloud talking here and I'm interested in what others think their purpose is.

[Phoebe]

Same as here, with some new feeling that there's an urgent mission to defend democracy, the importance of truth, honesty, facts, scientific reasoning about facts, community goods, and that sort of thing. Not like I didn't support those things before, but I find myself pointing it out explicitly to other people now. Thanks for taking FACTS into account. Thanks for being honest when you could have gone another easy way. This is where legit disagreement about meaning of evidence can happen, and here is where the boundary line exists, on the other side of which is not giving a shit about facts. Here's the violence done to people when other people stop giving a shit about truth or community goods. Etc.

[Tahlvin]

The purpose of most life is to procreate, to pass on the genes, to allow the species to continue. That applies as much to the mosquito as it does to human beings. The fact that we're self-aware just allows us to contemplate other possibilities. But if every human being decided tomorrow that procreating wasn't their thing, and of course actually followed through on that belief, then the debate on the meaning of life sure wouldn't last more than a generation.

I suppose you could look at quite a few other things as tangential to that need. Being a good husband to my wife sets a good example to my children for the kind of husband/father to be, or the kind of husband/father to look for in a mate, which helps improve the chances they do marry and procreate, etc. And being good parents to my children helps improve the chances that they will want to have children of their own, thus carrying on my genetic material to a new generation, etc. Raising my children to be well-behaved, productive members of society helps improve their chances of finding a good mate, who can help improve the chances of combining strong genetic material into the family line to pass to future generations and improve the chances of the line continuing far into the future.

Of course, I'm simplifying things for the sake of example. I don't tell my kids that their only purpose in life is to find a good spouse and spit out lots of babies. And there are certainly some people who either are unable to have children for some reason or other, or who just do not want to have children. The fact that we as a species (or at least most of us) can embrace those people and find value in them, is part of being an advanced species, thankfully. But a lot of tangential things, like the desire to make the world a better place to live in, can probably ultimately be traced back to an instinctual need to carry on the species as long as possible, and making the conditions optimal for that to occur.

Or is that to down-in-the-weeds for what you were looking for, Kyle? I'm talking quarks, leptons and bosons, and you're interested in molecules and compounds?

[bralbovsky]

I'm revisiting this question irl very soon because of my retirement. At the core, do I get to choose or even know it? I'm not sure.

Personally, I don't think the mosquito is here to make more mosquitoes. That's a side quest. repeatable. In Alaska mosquitoes are the primary pollinator. Perhaps not what the mosquito had in mind, but huge, nonetheless.

Current thinking on creation is wrestling with something called baryogenesis. It's the too quick to measure chain of reactions that happen when energy is dense enough to be matter so it creates matter, but it simultaneously creates antimatter, which condenses instantly back into energy, boom. Except for reasons we can't yet explain, this balance isn't balanced. Every billion or so reactions, apparently, produce an excess of matter. Molecular, but real, that escapes the maelstrom and wanders off to join with other molecules that previously escaped.

Everything we are, everything we see, stars, rain, frogs, everything we can't see, dark matter, black holes, everything, is made up of these escaped particles. The whole universe is a playground for escaped matter.

Is there a parallel anti-matter playground we just can't detect (because getting close enough means annihilation)? Don't know. Why this imbalance? Maybe the math that says it's supposed to balance is wrong and we're the purposeful remainder....

If I could generate a purpose, mine it from the stardust we swim in, it'd be to catalyze that. To generate as much positive molecular and sub molecular stuff as possible, despite the antimatter maelstrom in Washington. So far, three kid ships launched safely, to spread more good stuff into the universe.... contemplating my next bold move...

[Phoebe]

I love this; we are trying to launch our boats, and after that will have to take stock of what is possible. I wonder what your bold move will be. I thought mine might be striving for leadership in my profession, but now I wonder if it isn't developing a second career (latest obsession is researching movement disorders, or working as an artist/fiber artist, or if climate change happens super fast, an electrician). One thing my husband wants to do is help fundraise and campaign for quality political candidates in our home state. We seem to align our sense of purpose neatly as a married unit, even though individual projects diverge a great deal. We work extraordinarily well as a team even if we aren't always agreeing or even getting along; we both have some kind of deep, burning drive to make the overall plan work. Conflict often may be traced directly to a divergence in ends (i.e. I would be happy to drive the same old car and spend all the money on music lessons and new instruments; I'm prepared to sink all my free cash into college tuition; I don't want anything that exists in Orlando; etc). We have to evolve in harmony with joint purposes; so far, so good.

[Eliahad]

I think I'm turning my life upside down to do exactly this.

I can't procreate, not without spending a lot of money that I don't really have. And it's unfortunate, but it caused some hardships, since that was THE PLAN and the plan is gone. So it's time to figure out what else can be done. So maybe I'll wrote more here later, I will have some time to think about it soon.

[Phoebe]

Given that you have many powers and already do many awesome things, it is exciting to anticipate what plan might be next. Not sure that's how it is from your perspective when you posted, but from my perspective out here, surely it will be awesome. One time you had a plan I got a CD, that's all I know.

[Iantha]

My purpose is to raise Turkish to be a strong, intelligent human being, help and support Paul in any way I can, and to keep improving myself. Turkish is almost 16 now and is much more independent and self-reliant than she used to be, so much of my energy has been refocused into helping Paul and my own self-improvement. School for me, and a possible work transition on the horizon for Paul are keeping me pretty busy. I'm happy, satisfied, and feel pretty good about my progress and our family in general.