I no longer know what I should do, my friend. What is the
point of life? What should I do next?
I think it is about
time that I start thinking of settling down, you know? Maybe marry. Maybe have
kids. Procreate.
So many people emphasise the need of offspring in their
life. But, what is the point of having an offspring? What do you want to pass
on to it? Your values? Your thoughts and knowledge? Your ambitions? Your genome?
I’d say that all of
those are by products, aren’t they? They will have their own values, thoughts,
knowledge, ambitions and so on. Hopefully, theirs would align to mine, and also
be much stronger than mine.
So where does all of this end? Does this train of have a
destination? Or will your offspring hope the same things for their offspring,
and so will cycle propagate forward?
There is no destination
to this train of thought. Think of it as an infinite
journey.
Or is there though? I would like to think that there is a
destination, and that this destination is death. After all, it is the
inevitable truth that will catch up with all of us.
Maybe I got to a stage in my life where I have to face my mortality, whether I like that or not.
Sure. But after your
death, people keep on living. Surely the world does not end with your death. Look
further into the future following your death, hence the infinite journey.
Fallacy! Cogito ergo
sum. That is the proposition of the famous, René Descartes. I think therefore I am. Whatever and
whoever is around me, is only true because I can perceive it.
For all I know, the truth is that I am a mad man staring at
a wall shouting “I will die” whilst thinking that I am having this
conversation. We could both be plugged to the matrix as we speak, thinking we live
these crazy lives that we do, but in reality, stuck in a small box with big ass
machines “feeding” off the energy produced by your body.
Death, will essentially result in my brain to stop thinking.
Therefore, in the same way as I think
therefore I am I’d say we can imply that Since I do not think, I am not. And everything else around me is no
more, because I can no longer perceive it.
Offspring, progenesis,
whatever it is or whatever one wants to call it, realistically it is just a
simple illusion. The illusion! The one that hides away the ugly, simple truth
that someday, you, me , and all of us, will suddenly cease to be.
Well, one can look at
it that way, sure. Then again, it all relies on what one want to do with
oneself. We are all bared to die some point or another. You can either stay put
and wait for your time to come. Or else, you can do stuff! Anything, really.
And maybe, just maybe,
the next generation, including your offspring, might acquire something out of
that one might choose to contribute, be it knowledge, thoughts, values,
ambitions and the rest.
I have to admit, your argument is extremely compelling. However,
there is a flaw to it.
Which is?
Look at me for a second. Let us assume that I do something
productive with my life, with the hope to pass it on to the next generation, to
my offspring. What if the next generation, including my offspring, are morons? What
if they take what will have been given to them, and they throw it away? What if
they do not appreciate it? Would it not have been better to spend my life chilling
out, with a beer in one hand, and a cigar in the other?
I think this is the bigger question, is it worth it? Is it
worth it to produce knowledge and offspring, and then to pass said knowledge,
thoughts, ambitions, even genome, to said offspring and the next generation?
To be fair, I am
betting that your offspring, not just yours, but even mine, will not be morons.
I am willing to bet that they will not throw knowledge away like that.
Isn’t that assumption a bit egotistical though? How can one
possibly know? There is a solid possibility that they will be intelligent. But
there is also the possibility that they will be utter morons. Or, it might be
the case that I will be bad father. Maybe, who knows after all, Trump and Putin
will blow up the world by then.
Thinking about it, the issue is not dealing with my own mortality, but with my own humanity. Dealing with the limitations
that come along with humanity.
The truth is, I am not happy with the limitations of being
human. I want to be god!
And I want to be a kettle,
hah!
I could use you to make some tea then, haha!
That is the thing though, I want to be in a position where I
have enough knowledge, to make the best decision. But to do that, I need all the information, even that information
which I cannot yet obtain, because my limitations as a human being stop me from
doing so.
Don’t we all want that?
After all, life is a matter of compromise.
And so, I would say that all of this brings us back to
square one. I do not have all the information. So if I lack the information and
knowledge required to make the best decision, how can I decide on what to do,
and if it is worth doing?
Wasn’t it Winston Churchill who said “Success is
not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” I
guess what he wanted to say is, life is not always plain sailing.
And there it is! My next big fault. My ego might be slightly
(and using the words might and slightly over here is an
under-assessment of the case) too big to accept failure.
These are the universal
questions my good friend. They have no answer, and that is why one never stops
to wonder. Maybe the computer was right after all. The answer might be forty-two for all we know. These
questions thrill us, mentally, but as you concluded by yourself earlier, they are
impossible to resolve, because of the limitations that come along with our
existence.
And the cycle repeats, and repeats, and repeats ….
Or, maybe after some point,
it doesn’t anymore …
