posted:Nihilism: A doctrine holding that existence is without intrinsic meaning or value.
I think I'm a nihilist, however, I sometimes wonder if my reverence for consciousness/personhood and its long-term preservation makes me something else since I seem to be moving away from nihilism the older I get. I just don't know the label.
To me a conscious being has intrinsic value, but that's just because I look at it in awe as the ultimate accomplishment of the laws and workings of the universe. It often
seems to me that a plausible greater meaning or direction for humanity is to, en masse (though not necessarily on an individual or aware level), act in ways that keep consciousness present in the universe until the time to pass the torch to our evolutionary successor(s) arrives. This overarching goal would be carried on across more and more of the universe until the end of the universe. Consciousness would attempt to get around its destruction by eventually initiating new universes with the same laws in place as ours that are thereby conducive to the evolution of intelligent life.
It seems that is what our purpose is, if you look at things from a very wide view and look past the distractions of the present. Plus, it doesn't require any current belief in superior beings/gods but it acknowledges that natural or artificial selection would likely create vastly superior beings in the future. There are many active projects right now attempting to both enhance human beings and create consciousness in other non-carbon-based substrates.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/15/2009 09:38AM by pragmatica.
