Are we assuming equality of needs and brains when developing out purpose? Or are we assuming our needs and brains are representative of all needs and brains? and is that not ego?

It’s not an essential part. That’s my point.

There is no purpose. The universe doesn’t come with instructions to “do this because that’s how it’s supposed to be”. It’s an entirely made up concept by us alone.

You have your biological imperative to reproduce and nature will select for those that do, but beyond that it’s entirely up to you to figure out what to do or how to get to the point of reproduction or whether you even want to.

Naturally, humans sat around asking questions. Why am I here? What is the point? Why me? The mind wandered and came up with the answer. Ah, but of course, purpose! This is what I was MEANT to do… it’s preordained!

Throw away this concept for a moment and look at the basics: you have a physical body and a mind and stuff around you. You need to do something …so you eat, you build a shelter to not die, you take care of yourself because you’re trying to survive. What is your purpose then? Go back to primitive humans - what is their purpose? It’s whatever their mind decides. I don’t know what they thought of as purposeful but I imagine it’s not the same as what we think about now. Different needs, different actions.

Fast forward to today and you have your basic needs taken care of, you have plenty to occupy your intellect and pleasure. What has changed fundamentally? You’re probably more intelligent and able to formulate more ideas and concepts thanks to language, society, technology etc…These are all external things that happened along the way, the body is mostly the same - evolved a bit to adapt to times but “purpose” is a product of intellect - human intellect, it is not something that is intrinsic as a matter of fact.

But it’s here nonetheless - purpose - so we must decide if we care about it or not. After all, it’s what some other human decided we should ponder. But why should one human care about what the other human values? Why should they even agree to this idea of purpose?

This is part of the point. We can’t ignore that “purpose” is useful in fostering values - sometimes good ones, other times not so great depending on which side of those values you find yourself on. But really it’s just your values and some idealized life. Which is fine! Nothing wrong with having goals and values and living in a way that you find meaningful. Lots of good can come from that. And if others like how you conduct your life, they will join maybe and that’s great! What I find bothersome is when this construct is used to shame, control or pressure people who don’t see eye to eye, or who may not even acknowledge the very concept of purpose. Not everyone needs a revelation to carry out their lives in whatever way they see fit. The concept of a wasted life is a human concept - it assumes one action is more important in the grand scheme of existence than another. It’s virtue signaling and ego boosting at the expense of others. I see a lot of this kind of judgmental attitude among bitcoiners which is a bit ironic and hypocritical considering they often talk about freedom and the ability to do as you please.

Love and friendship as a purpose are ok I guess, a bit basic though don't you think? Some of us are called to great purpose in replying cryptic and poetic things while zapping very small amounts to strangers on niche decentralized social media apps. Brings me as much satisfaction as love and friendship for sure, sometimes more.

"And nature will select..."

Oh as it seems only nature (personified) can have an absolute, a singular purpose, but not us - of course nature and nurture are the two sides of the same coin, since our culture is solutions produced by our genome to solve (well I m following your take here) our genes' issues, but if we say "And nurture will select" doesn't sound so pleasant now, does it?

And while this is a complicated issue, worthy of long hours talking, you are generally wrong and your approach is rather immature.

I grew up in a troubled neighborhood with a lot of marginalized people inside, and for a reason I never understood they were coming to my as I was a little boy and telling me their pain, for a reason.

Gambling, drugs, alcohol, adultery all that stuff.

So I saw from a young age how people suffered from the absence of purpose in their lives, or for choosing (long and behold) the wrong purpose (not for themselves only bit for the society as well).

People without a purpose. That experiment.

Yes that social experiment we subjected ourselves the last 70 years of human civilization, contrasted with centuries of human civilization before us. But, yes, we know better 😅

As I said a lot of simplistic views here.

"Our mind will decide" (another personification here) you say as if we can "make it our way" as if we can leave outside of preordained cultures, concepts, technologies. Culture is a centuries long river that we float in, and as far as I know, people that thing they are doing "their own thing" are deeper in that human culture than they think they are.

We are merely heirs of notions and meaning. We don't invent them. We can diversify them, enrich them or make them poorer, mix them or change them a bit, but not inventing them. Your goal to be happy through creativity and technology doesn't differ from the Aristotelian approach of happiness (lessen the things that make you feel bad and grow the things to make you feel good) or the primitive tribal worships (make sacrifices to bad spirits to heart them less and to good spirits to help you more) - well, Christianity is documentably (at least in principal) different from those approaches.

Now to the simplifying of human life to "food and shelter to not die".

Our genes are not only to survival but to survival and/or efficiency.

That means:

I live, and then,

I live better, and then,

I want to live even better, and then ,

I want to live better than you etc..

But it's not even that simple.

Because then ideology (it's when ideas' *purpose* stop being to solve problems, but to ensure ideas' survival and prolongment) kicks in.

Why Hitler or Netanyahu or Stalin or Mao or western or eastern colonizers (I don't know, pick your bad guy here) did what they did?

Their food was in the table already.

On the contrary, their obedient servants' food and life would be in danger of they didn't follow their orders and kill/destroy whatever. We know what nature would tell us about that: "Survive at any cost, even it it means obay blindly orders".

This is why we should care (not judge) what other people values are.

Because every personal choise you make gets to be a social behavior in the end.

The guy sitting in his basement, masturbating watching porn is a member of our community, as well.

Materialism is easy, but how you prevent that for becoming nihilism (the difference between "why I should help granny to pass the road" and "I will kick her ass because I think it's funny or even profitable".

This is why we need (much hated nowadays) role models.

Give me a book to read so I will be kind, or simple, or helping, or modest.

It doesn't work that way. You need to live close to people who are kind, or modest or generous to learn how to be one.

And if your parents weren't that way, society has to provide some role models for you.

People of the modern society.

The only people ever existed who don't have a purpose and don't know how to find any or declare that don't need to (maybe it's the same thing).

As I said, a very complicated issue.

In my opinion the statement "I ll do it my way" is a delusion.

It's not "weather" you are following a culture, a tradition, a role model, but which on of them you are following.

I sincerely admire your restraint. Sometimes the argument calls to us like a whisper on the wind, persistent and persuasive. Only the strongest amongst us can resist the call of the troll. 👏

It’s all driven by psychological bias and ideas of superiority. And it’s hard to admit that this is the case but this is how humans function - the need to influence, to make themselves feel better, to exert dominance, acquire status and to control others.