…Well, that’s the end of the film. Now, here’s the meaning of life…Well, it’s nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations, and, finally, here are some completely gratuitous pictures of penises to annoy the censors and to hopefully spark some sort of controversy…

- Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life”

A bacteria or a dog goes about its daily (or whatever passes for a day-cycle for a bacteria) business of searching for sustenance, ingesting them, and eliminating the resultant wastes (in the dog’s case occasionally re-ingesting them again) without a care in the world about life, the universe, and everything. Well, strictly speaking, when a dog stares off into the horizon, we as humans (or heck even other dogs) wouldn’t be able to say for sure if it is contemplating its place in the universe, or just simply hooked on the scent from another dog’s ass few blocks away. We really can’t tell. For argument’s sake, however, it is probably safe to assume that due to the dog’s lacking an intellectual self-awareness, the meaning of life probably isn’t on its mind.

It would follow from this assumption that we humans are uniquely gifted to perform the necessary computation in our cerebral cortex to appreciate the complexity and the vastness of the universe, as well as our own little existence in relation to every other bloody thing in it.

Unfortunately, being able to contemplate the meaning of life doesn’t mean there actually is one. Being sentient does not automatically beget purpose or meaning. “I think therefore I am”, but “I am” doesn’t mean therefore I have a purpose and life is meaningful to me. There is an amusing allegoric story told by Douglas Adams that went like this:

…imagine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, “This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn’t it? In fact it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!” This is such a powerful idea that as the sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it’s still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything’s going to be alright, because this world was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it; so the moment he disappears catches him rather by surprise. I think this may be something we need to be on the watch out for.

In many ways we are no different from the puddle. Most people probably need to believe in something and keep that part of the brain working on anything, which may looked suspiciously like:

inline int TheMeaningOfLife() {return 42;};

Otherwise imagine the misery of the puddle if it figures out what’s really going on! So, if you must have a purpose to enjoy life, here’s a lovely gem to gaze upon. Quite a few wise folks had been saying for eons that the meaning of life may be that of “creation”…creation of order from chaos, creation of other lives, of little thingies, of thoughts, of ideas, of a legacy which will survive your death.

This actually sounds rather profound on oh so many levels. On the other hand, though, there is a real possibility that ultimately there is no meaning or purpose whatsoever…actually very much like this article. Anyway, it is also possible that anyone who is truly aware of this, and is perfectly comfortable with it, will possibly be the most enlightened and joyful person on the planet.

“Well, this was an intergalactic waste of time.”

- Colonel Jack O’Neill, SG-1, Stargate Command