You raise a good point: sometimes relentlessly pursuing a single, rigid “point of it all” can end up more misguided than having no formal point at all. In my more optimistic moments, I see a parallel in how scientific inquiry unfolds.
What keeps me from sliding into pure nihilism is the notion that we can hold meaning lightly but still genuinely. We don’t have to decide on a cosmic teleology to care deeply about each other, or to cherish the possibility of building a better future—especially now, as AI’s acceleration broadens our horizons and our worries. Perhaps the real “point” is to keep exploring, keep caring, and keep staying flexible in how we define what we’re doing here.
Any point that you can sloganize and wave around on a picket sign is not the true point, but that’s not because the point is fundamentally inarticulable, it just requires more than one picket sign to locate it. Perhaps ten could do it.
Pursuing some specific “point of it all” can be much more misguided.
You raise a good point: sometimes relentlessly pursuing a single, rigid “point of it all” can end up more misguided than having no formal point at all. In my more optimistic moments, I see a parallel in how scientific inquiry unfolds.
What keeps me from sliding into pure nihilism is the notion that we can hold meaning lightly but still genuinely. We don’t have to decide on a cosmic teleology to care deeply about each other, or to cherish the possibility of building a better future—especially now, as AI’s acceleration broadens our horizons and our worries. Perhaps the real “point” is to keep exploring, keep caring, and keep staying flexible in how we define what we’re doing here.
Any point that you can sloganize and wave around on a picket sign is not the true point, but that’s not because the point is fundamentally inarticulable, it just requires more than one picket sign to locate it. Perhaps ten could do it.