I don’t know the meaning of life. I don’t think we can answer that question well…yet.68
We must expand humanity and consciousness to the point where we are able to answer that question.69
It may be uncomfortable for a lot of people, but I think this is a rational and logical philosophy. Basically saying, “We don’t know what the answer is, but let’s try to find out.”70
I think we as humans collectively know part of the answer, but only a tiny part at this point. If we can make civilization last for a million years, we will probably know much more of the answer.71
If we date civilization from the first written language, it was about five thousand years ago. This is practically no time at all. If civilization were to last a million more years, we’re barely even at the beginning. Future humans will think of us as ancient ancients, like cavemen.72
This is the foundation of my philosophy: I am curious about the nature of the universe.
We can see the archaeological evidence in the fossil record, based on what we know of physics, how we came to be at this point on Earth step by step. But that doesn't explain how the universe came to exist in the first place.73
How do a bunch of molecules develop consciousness and feelings? From a physics standpoint, the chain of events from the beginning of the universe to now is quite well understood. There was a bunch of hydrogen gas that turned into complex molecules and now an assemblage of complex molecules—us humans who can feel, talk, and think. Apparently if you leave enough hydrogen gas sitting around long enough, it starts talking to itself. That’s basically what happened here.74
Assuming you believe the physics, which appear to be true, the universe started off as quarks and electrons and quickly became hydrogen, helium, lithium, most of the periodic table. Mostly hydrogen, though. Then, over a long period of time—13.8 billion years—that hydrogen became sentient.75
Where along the path from a bunch of hydrogen to human beings did consciousness start? It’s crazy.76 I wonder, is everything conscious or is nothing conscious? Maybe it’s just degrees of consciousness or concentrations of consciousness.77
Total collective consciousness is how many people there are times the average amount of consciousness per person. If we can expand consciousness by creating more humans and more digital intelligence, then our opportunity to understand the meaning of life is that much greater. I would call this the philosophy of curiosity—to better understand the nature of reality.78
What I think Douglas Adams was saying in his book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is “The universe is the answer.” We need to figure out what questions to ask about the answer that is the universe. The question is the hard part, and if we can properly frame the question then the answer, relatively speaking, is easy.
We need to expand the scope and scale of consciousness in order to understand what questions to ask of the universe. This is the path forward. If we do, we will be better able to understand the nature of the universe and understand the meaning of life. As just one example, we have to get back to the moon and build a science base there. I think we could learn a lot about the nature of the universe.79