[ExI] The meaning of life (in transhumanism)

[Omar Rahman]

Dear Anders,

	Thank you for asking this question. My answer to this in a 'traditional' context would be that we give our own meaning to life in the context of ourselves and our surroundings. This type of meaning is perhaps insufficient now that we live in the Anthropocene Era and we are embarking on the evolutionary era of transhumanism. I would like to refer to this evolutionary era as the 'giving ourselves ourselves' era, I'm pretty sure it would sound nifty in Latin or Ancient Greek. (Google translate proposes for Latin: dans tempus et ipsi nobis)

	In this context, where we may consciously shape both the environment and ourselves, we face the danger of over adaption to our environment. We might end up 'living in the bubble' of our own light cone, so galactically smug that we die literally of boredom. Do species knowingly or unknowingly engage in some sort of 'less than zero sum' game of adaptation of environment and self? Does this explain the Fermi Paradox?

	Or not. Perhaps there is a more interesting context just over that horizon which is MUCH more interesting that the shared context we have from being bipedal hairless apes of our various social-political-economic-cultural persuasions.

	We have the meaning we give ourselves, and if we dig at this meaning enough we end up with a 'because...just because' type of answer. Existentialists at some point have to face this and accept this to whatever degree they are able. Transhumanists will have to face this fully and be damn careful about editing that 'because.config' file.

Best regards,

Omar Rahman