The Reader's Digest Version of the Purpose of Life

Ok, so you want to fix the world, and by some twist of reality you've been given an absurd amount of power, but you don't want to be a tyrant or thoroughly wreck things, so you ask yourself, what now?

First of all we have to agree on what "fix" means. And generally that means improve, but improve what? We're not talking about grass roots homeless shelter style solutions here, you have more power than that in this context. We're talking about systemic change. A fundamental shift towards the plus side of the social spectrum.

So, what is the plus side? For practical purposes we have to answer a fundamental philosophical question. Wow, right? Philosophy stops being an esoteric head game and becomes a practical policy facet. The question is nothing less than, what is the point of life? We have to know before we can plan for fixing it. Well, here is it, the reader's digest version of the meaning of life and how to improve it.

42 right? No, that joke is a bit over used. And this is no joke. No, the meaning of life is "I don't know what the meaning of life is." Sounds like a non answer, but for practical purposes it's a very useful one.

Here's why. Once you can agree that you don't know what the deep all important hidden meaning of life is you're free to focus on what you DO know. and here's something we all know, that we can all agree on, and that my friends is the first step to real improvement by any practical definition.

Pain sucks. Pleasure rocks. Living people experience both.

Ready for it?

*drumroll*

The point of life is...

To maximize pleasure, to the greatest degree, with the least amount of work, for the greatest number of sentient beings, for the longest amount of time.

The various ways to do this are infinite in variety, and one great joy of life is figuring them out.

But it's worth keeping in mind, while you may be doing good, perhaps you could do more good somewhere else.

Good hunting.

-The Preceding is a chunk of my upcoming book.