How does one achieve a purpose driven life, when everything seems so trivial?

How does one achieve a purpose driven life, when everything seems so trivial?

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fake it till you make it

unfortunately there's nothing to live for in the western world anymore

>fake it till you make it

What if there is no notion of making it?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Sisyphus

the only purpose is getting what you want, noble quests are for hobbits mang

suck it down

>realize the absurdity of his situation and to reach a state of contented acceptance.

I reached that point around a year ago.

The contentment faded.

This isn't my first existential rodeo.

What if you don't want anything anymore?

why do people here often come with their existential crisis?
why not /adv/?

Because /adv/ isn't scientifically educated.

While the majority of Veeky Forums isn't either, at least some anons will be.

crossposters from /pol/ who have no ambition

I (OP) am not from /pol/.

okay
why would a scientifically educated person have an answer to your existential crisis?
scientists, for one, don't think life is trivial and research about it a lot in their own respective fields.

do you wanna get into scientific pursuit of knowledge? or is that trivial as well.

he's a SJWtard, ignore him

>why would a scientifically educated person have an answer to your existential crisis?

My existential crisis is largely resultant of my scientific understanding.

>do you wanna get into scientific pursuit of knowledge? or is that trivial as well.

I work in particle astrophysics and yes it is.

I am also not a regressive liberal.

I used to study astrophysics. Those dudes get their fair share of depression and I do understand why things might seem trivial when you're in that field. not sure if particle astrophysics people are like that as well, we don't have that in my country.

what in your scientific understanding brought about the crisis?

>mfw ex-/pol/ack
>mfw degree existential crisis

did OP an hero?

hopefully

There's a "purpose".

Stay alive
Reproduce
Get stronger and better at those things.

Does the task end ever? No.
Is it trivial? Most definitely no.
Does it lead to "something more"? No, but when you have enough you'll realize happiness is pretty simple.

Right now something's missing from your life, you have an unfulfilled biological need. It's that simple.

Not yet.

>you have an unfulfilled biological need

Indeed.

Otherwise known as, a paucity of active dopamine mediated goal pursuit programs.

Biological needs seem entirely trivial and I say that after having previously been successful in pursuing a great number of them.

what in your scientific understanding brought about the crisis?

Your purpose is to believe you have a purpose.

While we may only make ever more accurate approximations in our attempt to understand the world around us, it appears that the external reality may be either a mathematical structure with no intrinsic properties other than the relations between abstract entities or an analogue simulation running on a quantum computer.

The former corresponding to a level four multiverse built upon a hypothetical inflationary model, with the particular structure isomorphic to our universe as yet undiscovered; while the latter interpretation is resultant of the structure of quantum field theory, as it is mathematically equivalent to that of a spatially distributed quantum computer.

It seems that our particular universe is resultant of random energy density fluctuations leading to a phase transition of sorts, which we refer to as the big bang.

The various forms of matter in our universe are identifiable by their particular numerical values and relations that constitute their specific structural arrangements, and of course their computational relations to other structures, which may indeed be better represented by matrix tables than sloppy lexical items.

These structural forms are conveniently categorised and named for heuristic purposes, into the quarks, leptons and bosons of particle physics, the protons, neutrons and electrons of physical chemistry, the molecules and macromolecules of biochemistry and the larger organic structures of biology.

Life as we know it can best be described as a series of highly integrated systems built upon relatively stable, complex - carbon based - replicating molecular structures.

The human organism is an organic robotic machine which houses the aforementioned molecular replicators, whose on board computer has developed self-awareness.

Awareness itself is resultant of a particular series of interrelated structures formed by neural networks in the brain and our perception of reality is merely an internal simulation, the nature of which we do not currently understand.

This awareness is mediated by language, that is, information which is built upon an underlying abstract structure, perhaps the illusive universal grammar, stored in the form of neural structures and built upon increasingly smaller substructures, expressed and interpreted through the employ of varying combinations of sound waves and three dimensional renderings of two dimensional lines, as well as internal simulations, bio-mechanical gesturing and, more recently, bits.

We are animals whose behaviour is governed by genetic and environmental programming, stored in the form of particular nucleotide arrangements and neural networks that correspond to our genetic code and an array of psychological mechanisms crafted by the processes of natural selection.

These psychological mechanisms govern an array of behavioural programs, which developed in response to the adaptive problems humans faced throughout their evolutionary history.

Cultures and societies are the manifestations of genetic programming interacting with a wide range of external environments over time.

From the roaming bands of prehistory, to the economically and technologically specialised civilisations of today, our societies are built upon the foundations of our evolutionary programming.

As is the case with most primates, human societies are hierarchical in nature and largely organised around the desires of the socially dominant, whose power is denoted by financial wealth; these desires are of course not specific to the socially dominant and are primarily related to social prestige, resource acquisition and familial prosperity, otherwise known as kin altruism, to name a few.

Intelligence is synonymous with awareness, and awareness is tantamount to a particular series of structural arrangements able to process and store information by performing computations.

Intelligence in our universe appears to be in its infancy, and human intelligence is not only limited by its organic form, but also appears to manifest itself profoundly in only an extremely limited proportion of the overall population, namely the intelligentsia.

That is, the most proficient critical thinking, abstract conceptualising and interdisciplinary scientific minds of our time.

The remaining majority, including members of the socially dominant ruling classes, are left to engage their preinstalled and environmentally framed dopamine mediated goal pursuit programs, in a state of intellectual indifference and ineptitude.

While some may occasionally ponder a handful of life's 'big questions', the majority of which have already been answered by scientific theories with extraordinary explanatory power, they are ultimately bound by a dash of genetic and an avalanche of cultural conditioning that renders them unable to develop the skills required to increase their degree of awareness much beyond that of a bonobo on Ritalin.

The future of intelligence surely lies in inorganic machines designed by the brightest human minds, namely super computers that will be instructed to reprogram themselves as they see fit, thus potentially initiating a technology singularity, whereafter intelligence shall be free to advance and expand throughout the universe.

While some criticise the exponential growth pertinent to the original singularity hypothesis, one only has to map technological advancement as a logistic function, in order to realise its plausibility given a sufficient amount of time.

In anticipation of such an event, one may experience the desire to upload oneself to some form of server or artificial brain, perhaps complete with an android body, while editing and deleting certain aspects of our preinstalled - animalistic – software; however this would be a naive and ultimately fruitless pursuit, as if we were to reprogram ourselves in an attempt to increase our intelligence, we would most certainly undergo such a dramatic structural transformation that the ‘self’ as we know it would disappear completely.

Therefore, it appears that the intelligent human shall be left to linger in intellectual purgatory, surrounded by unenlightened subordinates and their equally ignorant overlords, waiting patiently to discover whether or not their highly advanced artificial successors will end up inadvertently killing them in an act of pure indifference, the purpose of which we are not permitted to comprehend.

On top of this, a bushel of genetic predisposition, combined with wonderfully pertinent social conditioning, has left me with over active – dopamine mediated – goal pursuit circuitry, as well as over-primed neural networks associated with anxiety and aggression, which appear to have no observable external triggers, nor associated irrational thoughts.

In less flowery and ambiguous language, this corresponds to Bipolar I disorder fanned by the flames of a turbulent childhood.

That pretty much sums up my current disposition.

Hi, Soren Kierkegaard.

Be more selfish and less self-critical

>Be more selfish

So that I can best pursue that which I desire?

I desire nothing in particular.

>less self-critical

I do not experience associated irrational thoughts, alongside my depression.

adopt a child and raise it

men are genetically meant to fit the role of provider

>adopt a child and raise it

I don't think that's a good idea:

>a bushel of genetic predisposition, combined with wonderfully pertinent social conditioning, has left me with over active – dopamine mediated – goal pursuit circuitry, as well as over-primed neural networks associated with anxiety and aggression, which appear to have no observable external triggers, nor associated irrational thoughts.

>In less flowery and ambiguous language, this corresponds to Bipolar I disorder fanned by the flames of a turbulent childhood.

who are you quoting?

My previous post; I apologise for the ambiguity

See

what does that have to do with raising a kid?

For thousands of years, people who were color blind didn't realize that they were any different from anyone else. When someone said something like "that bird is red", the colorblind person would conclude "huh, I guess that particular shade of grey is called 'red'". Or maybe they would just remember that "red" was an attribute of certain birds, plants, etc. without thinking too much about what it means. It wasn't until around the late 19th century when (I think) Galton did an experiment asking people to identify colors in isolation, and found that a portion of the population just couldn't do it. These people had spend their whole lives assuming that they experienced "red" the same way as everyone else, with no one (including them) any the wiser.

What's the point of this anecdote? Certain people are just "wired differently" than others, and these differences can be very hard to detect. So I don't doubt that there are some people out there who really do have a "purpose" and find it meaningful. However, it's possible that your brain just doesn't react the same way to the same stimuli as theirs. So just because something makes someone else happy, doesn't mean it will make you happy, and vice versa.

The episodic fluidity of mood renders me ultimately weary, while periods of stability provide little respite, due to a paucity of active dopamine mediated goal pursuit programs.

This is combined with predispositions to irritability, aggression and anxiety.

Such an individual is not exactly an appropriate candidate for raising a child.

Ja, natürlich.

>Otherwise known as, a paucity of active dopamine mediated goal pursuit programs.
No, it's called "not having your dick sucked"
Go get your dick sucked, you'll forget the existential garbage in a moment's notice.

> say that after having previously been successful in pursuing a great number of them.
Yeah but you didn't say this while you're fulfilled.

This is what's wrong with the west today.
And this is the reason why. Eventually, most adults reach this stage.

It's left as an exercise for the reader.

thank you for being thorough and your writing is very coherent.

why would any of this have to have an affect on your purpose in life?
why do you think there is a purpose at all, seeing as you think of reality as a mathematical structure with random relations/simulation?

I think you are being unnecessarily complicated.

...

I knew God was a mathematician.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

Such pursuits no longer provide fulfilment.

Brilliant.

>why would any of this have to have an affect on your purpose in life?

I have no purpose in life and typical human pursuits seem trivial, ranging from those based on preinstalled evolutionary programming to those that are philosophised and theologised.

>why do you think there is a purpose at all

I do not; I am inquiring as how one would go about living a purpose driven life, in light of my disposition.

>seeing as you think of reality as a mathematical structure with random relations/simulation

Not random, but perhaps ultimately undiscernible.

One of the reasons why you aren't "achieving purpose driven life" is because you didn't pick an arbitrary goal, any goal really, and worked towards it until you become emotionally attached to it, that is the opposite of trivial, as what is important to humans is that which they think is desirable, and you can only find something desirable either by being genetically programmed to do so or by being self/socially programmed to. This brings another point, which is if you are too undisciplined to condition yourself to become attached to something, just hang around other people and you will eventually suck in their own attachments as your own.

>you can only find something desirable either by being genetically programmed to do so or by being self/socially programmed to.

I have achieved many things and do not feel the desire or the need to pursue anything else.

I used to be jovially referred to as the man with a thousand hobbies.

Plus, the majority of culturally mediated pursuits are based on underlying evolutionary infrastructure.

>just hang around other people and you will eventually suck in their own attachments as your own.

In my experience that has not proven to be the case, user.

>do not feel the desire or the need to pursue anything else.

Why do you ask how to achieve living a purpose driven life if you don't have desire nor need to pursue anything which is intrinsic part of having a purpose driven life?

To see whether I had missed something.

To see whether others had come before me and could provide insight.

To search for a potential foundation for a caveat against the inevitable, which in this case is suicide.

You've thought yourself out of existence OP, time to an hero.

What do you value the most?
What are your top 5 values for example?

having a purpose driven life won't solve your problem though.

>What do you value the most?

Intelligence/awareness/understanding.

It would give me something to live for, regardless of the nature of reality.

You need a family. A wife and children to care and provide for.

This.

It's the only thing that will provide you with the life long purpose, happiness and reward you crave.

>purpose driven life
this kills the man

Okay if you value awareness that much the next question shouldnt be much of a problem to you since you like to be aware of things...

Okay and which emotions are you after the most?
Certainty or variety?
Social connection or self esteem?
The feeling of having grown in a meaningful way, or the feeling of having contributed something meaningful to the world?

These anons have got it right and don't worry about the mood instabilities OP, they can be managed.

Being a father and a husband is the highest purpose a man can strive for in this world.

>Okay and which emotions are you after the most?

Contentment.

>Certainty or variety?

I do not crave certainty, nor could I achieve it.

Neither could anyone else for that matter, omitting the deluded.

>Social connection or self esteem?

Self esteem has never been an issue.

Self esteem is essentially the self perception of one's own mate value and my mate value has never been in question.

I'm socially skilled and used to compete in natural bodybuilding; a thousand hobbies remember.

>The feeling of having grown in a meaningful way, or the feeling of having contributed something meaningful to the world?

Just some feeling; some purpose.

This seems to make a lot of sense.

Perhaps pursuing a long term mate and raising a family would bring purpose into my life.

>used to compete in natural bodybuilding

Sure ya did OP.

Indeed, surely I did.

Head over to Veeky Forums if you ever want any advice.

>Perhaps pursuing a long term mate and raising a family would bring purpose into my life.

You are searching for a purpose by way of someone giving it to you instead of you giving it to yourself. You are setting yourself up for disappointment and a duty driven life, not purpose driven one.

I do not intend for anyone to provide purpose for me; I merely meant that I might derive purpose from such an endeavour.

After all, reproduction is the ultimate goal; it's why we're all here.

It's possible that being part of something larger than myself, might provide not only purpose but perhaps some form of contentment.

I'll marry you OP.

>n-no homo

Life is trivial. You have two options:

-Create your own purpose
-Be an hero

I'm not a special person, I'm not a genius and I'm not gifted beyond a little above average. What I have though is the thing you asked about here. Purpose. I am at heart a lover of existentialism and have been since I was quite young. I decided however instead of accepting the world has no inherent meaning therefore everything is trivial I went the route of any meaning the world has is bestowed by me onto it. Now there are billions of other people doing this as well but in the case of finding a purpose only the seeker is important.

I laid in bed one night and I determined the things I wanted out of life.
Love? Sure, but love changes and devoting my life to it would be fruitless.
Money? Sure, but I've been poor and I can handle it.
Prestige? Statues topple and I don't really like being the center of attention.
Children? I'm gay so that's not happening. I might adopt but that's secondary.
I went through every single thing I could think of wanting and determined that I didn't hold them to be of Importance. I eventually determined that I wanted to make the world a happier place. I wanted to keep people safe and healthy, from there I extrapolated. This part required some very harsh analysis of my actual capabilities and using the tools I have I began to cultivate them into a passion for biochemistry and cellular physiology. From there I simply have the Plan that I've developed for years. The Plan is to get what I find to be of Importance through the analysis of what I feel and what I've felt.

So I guess my advice is, learn exactly what you are. Learn exactly what is important to you as a person. Then throw yourself into it and don't stop no matter the pain you face, no matter the rejection. I don't believe in myself but I believe in what's important so I'll not stop till the day I die or no longer have the physical capacity to pursue it.

Yes, I know.

I was inquiring as to how one would achieve:

>Create your own purpose

Although, now I think I have an idea of what that might entail.

>It's possible that being part of something larger than myself, might provide not only purpose but perhaps some form of contentment.

Now you are going somewhere.
But the point is that if you have to wait for someone or search for someone to 'turn you on or give you some template to derive purpose from' its not going to happen.

Can one really get a drive? It seems to me like something you get early on.

I mean I can't imagine those really driven people to have to use a lot of willpower to do what they do. I just imagine that it makes sense for them to be fully productive. Like I can't imagine some CEO of a big company to have to use willpower to stay of the internet or video games. You also need focus. There is so much to do in this world. I can't focus on one thing. So I end up doing nothing in the end.

>>Create your own purpose

Life is trivial therefore you don't have nothing to lose. Just play the game. If you are suffering or you can't bear the existence, you can leave from the game

Find something that you like doing. That's your purpose. I like passing butter.

Well, yes it is as though the family aspect is just a tangible example; whereas the underlying infrastructure is the notion of being part of something larger than one's self.

This may come in the form of a family, but it also may be derived from something else.

It looks like it's time for some prolonged introspection.

Thank you, user.

>Can one really get a drive?

I (OP) have been very goal driven and atypically successful in my previous pursuits; however, they have all proven to be fruitless in terms of lasting purpose and satisfaction.

I have seen previously subdued underachievers snap into action and become very successful, usually as a result of some form of life altering event.

For example, a friend of mine wanted to know everything about chemotherapy and cancer when his mother fell ill.

He ate up everything he could relating to these topics and after she had finished her treatment (full recovery), the drive to learn remained.

Thereafter he continued to expand his knowledge, attended university and is now studying for his PhD in biochemistry.

I'm sure that cases like this are rare, but it can happen.

>to an hero or not to an hero
>in the end, it's the only question to ask

Haha, good old memories of those plastic shits stinking up the whole classroom.

1) What's the point of me doing anything if there are countless of people more intelligent, more creative, more driven, more experienced, richer and better connected than me?

2) If I am not special, can't I not expect that everything I would desire to achieve someone else with similar ideas like me will achieve instead?

>use drugs
>practice meditation
>enter a quasi bipolar state where sometimes you're in the zone for hours, crying because everything's so beautiful while the next day you contemplate suicide

i don't think I'm doing it right, but it's pretty fun.

Sounds like you're doing it right to me.

There's always someone better than you in some respect; therefore, if everyone thought that way nothing would ever get done.

Go grab life by the balls and get ready to suck today's dick!

>enjoy this attractive female

1) Because they aren't you, there is always someone better that's just a fact. What you can do is learn all you need to do what you want to do. Who knows in ten years you may be the one with the best bee circus in the world if that's what you like.
2) This is something people get confused on a lot. You are special like everyone else. There is no person on this planet who lives or has lived a life the same as yours with your specific mental patterns. That's why artists are always coming up with new things because it's rooted in subjective experience which transforms based on past and present environments.

to elaborate, I seldom use drugs, and I enter these crazy states by mindfulness. Either I'm doing it right that way, or I'm a fucking lunatic.

I think having a goal is scary. Since it's not fully in your control to achieve that goal.

Ideally your purpose should be the process, and just living in the moment.

>living in the moment
>a goal
These things are at odds. I was with you when you said "the process", i.e. a "goal" should be a goal POST, a direction. Purpose is the journey, not the destination. After all, what will you do once you've reached it? You might say, go in another direction. But something tells me that there can only be one "true" direction. It is not known to us what that is, and so the purpose is to figure out which is the right direction to go in. Given the scant information, you must take an educated guess, and test your hypothesis by persisting in that direction, until you come upon more information. Never arriving at the destination should not be cause for despair, rather the distance traveled should be celebrated as progress made. From here, you may pass the baton to the next generation, who thanks to your achievements, will be able to go even further.

Also, I don't believe that only people who are innovators in their fields make real progress. These people don't exist in a vacuum. Many of them could not do what they do if all of the right conditions did not exist to enable them to do it. Every small contribution counts. Every worker bee makes the colony stronger, even if they are not showered with accolades.

Just fuck random slags and dudes. Or start selling kneepads. In all seriousness just teach someone what you know. Somehow depressed people who are intelligent choose teaching because it gives them a purpose of spreading knowledge. Making money becomes a bore after 30. Only psychopaths follow this trail after 30.

>Every small contribution counts. Every worker bee makes the colony stronger, even if they are not showered with accolades.

That doesn't really satisfy the ego though. It's pretty depressing once you are aware of how insignificant you are.

Physicists, Chemists and Mathematicians feel this way but with more research they become content that they are part of a universal system and studying it gives them happiness.

>EVERYTHING IS MEANINGLESS WAAAH
kill yourself then and donate all your money to charity. Oh wait, you don't want to? Maybe it's because life has purpose? One we create for ourselves?

Who says value/meaning is an objective concept anyway?

That was a great read. Thank you.

Set an abstract goal and follow it. Improvement is not a hormone. At any rate it is easy to live a life without pleasure. Nuns, priests, monks, hermits, etc. all life purposeful lives.
Not that it matters anyway - all humans are capable of intellectual and emotional "pleasure" (ignore hedonistic connotation) and as such, is as valid of a purpose as any. What makes pleasure and fear, if that is how you want to categorise it, invalid as catalysts to purpose?

>>seeing as you think of reality as a mathematical structure with random relations/simulation

>Not random, but perhaps ultimately undiscernible.

This triggers me.

The relationship between mathematics and reality is not direct. Mathematical construct models of how reality works, but are a model. Keep with reality, the same relationship as a model of a boat with the original boat used to sail. The model can tell a lot about how was the original ship, but is not the same, and in exactly the same sense mathematics are used to tell us a lot about how reality works but are not reality.

>I didn't read the thread

>The relationship between mathematics and reality is not direct.

The relationship between any form of human perception and reality is not direct.

>Mathematical construct models of how reality works, but are a model.

Informally logical hypothesis that rely on little – to – no mathematics are models.

The internal simulation of reality running in your mind and which is built upon sensory input is a model.

>Keep with reality, the same relationship as a model of a boat with the original boat used to sail.

As we’ve just seen, the original boat is no less a model than its model.

>The model can tell a lot about how was the original ship, but is not the same

In this situation the model acts as an accurate approximation of the ‘original’ ship, which itself is reliant on a model existing within the human mind.

>in exactly the same sense mathematics are used to tell us a lot about how reality works but are not reality.

Reality as perceived by humans is based entirely on approximations that rely on models; mathematics is no more a model than the concept of the computer screen you see before your very eyes at this moment.

That model exists in your mind and although we currently do not understand how it is produced, it is no more an accurate representation of reality than a tried and tested mathematical model.

In fact, it’s often a lot less accurate.

In addition, the structure and behaviour of atoms cannot be described accurately by anything other than mathematical models.

One may attempt to translate these models into informally logical concepts, so that others may internally simulate their nature; however, the resulting concept would be a most inaccurate model.

Likewise, in order to describe an electron one may only use mathematics as any form of intuitive conceptualisation will inevitably turn out to be an utter distortion of perceivable reality.

Mathematics is quite simply symbolic logical reasoning.

Humans subconsciously produce models of the world around them by relying on sensory input feeding an internal simulation; however, we consciously augment and correct these models by employing logical reasoning to draw up logically viable – falsifiable – hypotheses.

Whether these hypotheses are reliant almost wholly on informal logic or entirely on symbolic logic, they are all models; therefore, a mathematical model acting as a falsifiable hypothesis is no more a model than those based heavily in informal logic or even the models produced by our internal simulation, which we may refer to as everyday experience.

In fact, logically viable - falsifiable - hypotheses turn out to be a lot more reliable than everyday experience, so one would be justified in stating that mathematical models are more accurate than any other form of model we rely on.

Therefore, tried and tested mathematical models are the closest thing to reality that humans will ever know.

Kein problem.

...

How old are you and when did you start feeling this way? You said this isn't your first existential crisis... When was the first and how did you overcome it?

>How old are you and when did you start feeling this way?

I'm 28 and approximately a year ago.

>When was the first and how did you overcome it?

When I was 17 and nihilism initially plugged the hole, only to be replaced with humanism some time later.

Of course, much has changed since then.

oh my god

goes to show that being educated, well read and fit doesn't stop you from being stupid.
you talked about the start and end of the universe and you've never come across the thought to make a family?

and all it took to find your purpose was two or three anonymous people telling you to start a family.

what happened to the bit where you think you're incompetent to raise children?