A discussion of the meaning of meaning and of the meaning of life

Your question was (I think) roughly:

What is the meaning of meaning, without falling back on using some kind of quantum explanation?

My first reaction to this question was to remember all the weird debates which result from people assuming such different meanings for the word "consciousness". To understand reality at all, we need to get used to working with multiple sensible definitions, and not getting hung up[on less sensible ones.

But what of the meaning of "meaning" itself? Of course, it too has multiple sensible meanings. One is the usual interpretation of the first word in the previous sentence -- "meaning" as in the meaning of as word or phrase, which naturally leads into discussions of language. We have already discussed the basics of how language works. The world does need better support for "natural" language dialogue than what Facebook provides; a better computer network system would be better grounded, among other things, in the issues of multiple meaning in English, and of how such confusion can cause sincere confusions and fights of all kinds. 

But yesterday, another group reminded me of another meaning of "meaning." What of meaning in life, of purpose? That is even more central than language itself in our lives. After all, creatures who do not know English will often have a strong and important sense of purpose, even just in mundane neural aspect of their consciousness.

That group sent out data suggesting that the whole world has a growing problem with a lack of purpose and sense of meaningless in recent years (or decades). That is serious too. Can Cosmos and History help address THAT kind of thing? Can anyone else do so, without falling back into animal noises?

On the other list, I responded with:

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John's post is an example of an issue which it is challenging to really account for analytically, scientifically and in strategic policy -- yet it also of utmost importance, demanding that any sane person should try to pay real attention, while not pretending there is an easy solution.

I have to admit that the issue of purpose becomes a personal issue for me in recent years. For example, what is the purpose in trying to explain and prove certain new directions in quantum foundations at a time when other issues are likely to kill us a lot sooner, and people's ability to care and understand seems ever more problematic lately?

For me.. believe it or not, I was heartened somewhat by some of the comments of Pope Francis, as he visited some of the same places which my wife and I visited and probed just a week or two before.

What struck me hardest: when he said (roughly): We cannot save the life of the earth unless we first learn to really love it.

On Facebook (or youtube) it is easy to locate the back to back talks of Ban Ki Moon, Jerry Glenn (leader of www.themp.org) and myself on climate, Monday (two weeks ago) on Korea TV. But the sheer craziness I see on that subject in my neighborhood (near DC) really saps morale and effort and effectiveness and so on. It was very helpful to me that my wife arranged visits to dozens of centers of nature and life in Japan, and two days in Korea before the conference, reminding me in such a direct and personal way how much we really do love the life of this planet, and really do care enough to try to strengthen the connections to it and do the best we can, however daunting the obstacles from those who do not seem to be speaking from love or from sanity. (Caveat: for me, "sanity" is a technical term, referring to a concept which this list may not want to get deep into. If anyone cares, one of my papers last year says more: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41470-019-00038-z. )

And yes, a coherent sense of purpose is fundamental to "sanity" as I use that term, but in some environments the way ahead is much clearer than in others even at an equal level of sanity.

And that can affect anyone. Design of a better environment for humans is a crucial challenge in integrative IT design, among other areas, but I see a lot more lip service than effective design grounded in the basic principles of AI, etc.

                                                                                                             

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By the way, my direct, personal feeling of connection to life in general... as I experienced it in Japan last month....is illustrated in the photo album I posted at https://photos.app.goo.gl/aX9eKnuLmPLybxWc6

That was so good for morale!!! But it would take another long essay to explain the meanings and connections of all the many ... images...