“Existential threats to all life on the planet lie somewhere in the future and we do not know whether the existence of life matters. Human beings are the only species that can deal with any such events. We must make it our prime directive to align all human potential towards serving this purpose.”
Human beings are a very confused species.
We run around trying to figure out who we are and why we exist.
Always looking for some sort of clarity around what we should be doing with our lives.
Constantly searching for the meaning of life.
But searching for the meaning of life is like searching for the meaning of a toaster.
It doesn’t have a meaning, it has a purpose.
The purpose of a toaster is to serve the purpose that toasters serve.
Just like the purpose of a bee is to serve the purpose that bees serve.
Imagine if all of the bees suddenly woke up confused about who they are and what they’re supposed to do with their lives.
The world would quickly fall into chaos.
Which is exactly what has happened with humanity.
Without any sense of purpose, we just wake up confused.
And the world has fallen into absolute chaos as a result.
This confusion has caused us to make some really bad decisions.
Emotional decisions which have led us down a path of self-destruction.
Without a purpose to unite us, we’ve decided to go on a suicidal rampage.
Trying to grasp onto any reason that would make life worth living.
Searching for meaning when there’s no such thing to be found.
We’ve never actually taken a second to think about why we exist.
Not as individuals, but as a species.
Because the purpose of the individual is simple.
It’s not about who we are, it’s about what we are.
Just like the purpose of a tiger is to serve the purpose that tigers serve.
And the purpose of a king cobra is to serve the purpose that king cobras serve.
The purpose of a human is to serve the purpose of humanity.
Being clear on the purpose of humanity means that we no longer have to be confused.
We no longer have to run around trying to figure out who we are and why we exist.
And we no longer have to be constantly searching for the meaning of life.
We can take all of this wasted time and energy and use it to serve the purpose of humanity.
Use it to save the world.
So let’s get started.
I’ll explain the two main ways that I came to my conclusion on the purpose of humanity.
But I must say right off the bat that I used to be quite pessimistic when it came to the existence of humanity.
It seems the more you learn about the world the more you come to the conclusion that the best thing for the rest of the planet would be to get rid of the humans.
We’re an incredibly selfish and destructive species.
Little parasites that consume and destroy everything in our way.
Every major problem on the planet has been caused by human beings.
So logic would state that if we eliminate the humans we would get rid of all the problems.
But unfortunately this would only solve the short term problems of the world.
There is a long term problem that can only be solved by human beings.
“At some future point in time there will be a threat to the existence of all life on the planet. Which as far as we know, is all life in the universe. It could be an event of self-destruction, annihilation, or extermination. We don’t know when or how it will happen. But we do know that it will happen.”
Human beings are the only species that have the ability to deal with any such extinction event.
And this leads us to a couple of very simple and very logical questions.
Does the existence of life matter?
And…
Should we save it from extinction?
Both questions have binary answers.
Either life matters, or it does not.
And either we save it, or we do not.
Understanding this will lead us to our course of action, for all we have to do is mitigate for the only negative scenario.
Because if life doesn’t matter, then it matters not what we do.
No negative outcome.
But what if life does matter?
Well if life does matter, and we save it, then there is no negative outcome.
But if life matters, and we fail to save its existence, then by very definition there must be a negative outcome.
We do not need to know whether or not life matters, or why it matters, in order to come to the conclusion that our only course of action should be to ensure that existence continues to exist.
All we’re doing is removing the possibility of the only negative outcome.
But this is something that only humans have the ability to do.
Which brings us to the next thought experiment…
How do we determine what the purpose of anything is?
Again, simple logic.
It could be said that the purpose of a pencil is that it is to be used as a writing utensil.
But John Wick would probably disagree.
To him a pencil is just another possible weapon of death.
Because the purpose of something is dependant on the situation at hand.
Based on what is most urgent, and what is most important.
Because the uses for a human being are nearly endless.
We’ve launched them out of cannons, and sent them to the moon.
We’ve had them make cars, and swim with the fish.
We’ve cooked them for dinner, and had them do the dishes.
So how do we ever choose what a human being should be used for?
It’s only by looking at what is most urgent and and what is most important that we can prioritize the use of human potential.
Lucky for us, there’s a fancy little tool to help us out.
This is the Eisenhower Matrix…
It is a simple framework to plan, visualize, and prioritize what we should actually focus on.
If we had to watch Netflix, eat dinner, and our kitchen was on fire, our matrix would look something like this…
To figure out what the purpose of humanity should be, we just need to enter in everything that we could possibly do as a species, and then choose the most important thing based on our current situation.
Which would look something like this…
Because there is NOTHING more important than saving the world.
Absolutely nothing.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from.
Saving this planet and protecting the existence of life takes the cake above all else.
Because we don’t know whether or not life matters.
So we must act as though it does.
We are the only species that can take on this responsibility.
Therefore it becomes our obligation to assume this as our purpose.
And we must realign all human potential to serve this purpose.
Because the purpose of every human is to serve the purpose of humanity.
Human potential is the only weapon we have in this war for existence.
We need to stop wasting it on things that do not matter.
Most human potential throughout history has been wasted.
Because nobody ever gave us a reason not to waste it.
But now humanity has a reason.
A reason for realignment.
A reason for unification.
And a reason to exist.
Because now humanity has a purpose.