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I came across a story about Edge.com, an online magazine, asking a bunch of intellectual types to write a short essay on their most dangerous idea. I didn’t get it at first, but after reading a few of them…I feel doomed. There are well over 70 different answers to the question, so I didn’t read them all yet. I did read a few and one in particular really caught my eye. The author’s idea is that what if everything we are, dream of, desire, create, and love, are just natural reactions to neurons moving about in our brain? Basically, what if there’s no inner us; no soul? The notion that everything I cherish in my life, and everything I aspire to do is ultimately meaningless is downright terrifying. I guess in the end, assuming it’s correct, it really wouldn’t matter as the lights would just turn off and that’d be the end of it. It’s the anticipation that’ll get you.

Another article that was equally depressing talks about the possibility that life is all for nothing.

CHARLES SEIFE
Professor of Journalism, New York University; formerly journalist, Science magazine; Author, Zero: The Biography Of A Dangerous Idea

Nothing

Nothing can be more dangerous than nothing.

Humanity’s always been uncomfortable with zero and the void. The ancient Greeks declared them unnatural and unreal. Theologians argued that God’s first act was to banish the void by the act of creating the universe ex nihilo, and Middle-Ages thinkers tried to ban zero and the other Arabic “ciphers.” But the emptiness is all around us — most of the universe is void. Even as we huddle around our hearths and invent stories to convince ourselves that the cosmos is warm and full and inviting, nothingness stares back at us with empty eye sockets. Article…

I admit I’ve thought about it all. What IF this is really all for nothing? What IF there’s nothing else after this? The problem is, it brings me to another question…Why? I can’t even begin to explain, so I’d rather just ignore it. Ignorance is bliss, and I don’t mind one bit letting all the thinkers widdle away at it while I enjoy my life and do the things I want to do to make something out of it. Even if it is for nothing.