Meaning is like the ribbon tied around a gift box– there to accentuate the beauty of what already exists. The pattern, texture, and colors of the gift box are brought into appreciation by the ribbon, yet the ribbon says nothing about the gift box, much less about what’s inside of it. The gift box exists apart from its adornment. The gift box could be empty.
We do not know what nature is, or how it came to be, but we can deduce that it is full of variation. We may never come to know the answers that we humans seek– quite simply, nature precedes humans- it played out a fractal symphony, and we are the product of that symphony whose sheet music we cannot read. We simply hear the song.
Human beings, through a long evolutionary process developed an awareness unlike any other creature known to man. It is our habit to ascribe meaning, even divinity, to the inner and outer-worldly elements we know very little of. We are in want of something more, whether it exists or not.
The meaning of existence is subjective– it is based on individual interests, experiences, and knowledge. Everything we are exposed to, from the discovery of the Higgs Boson to gravity, enhances our perceptions of reality, and yet tells us nothing about why such things exist.
Consider a seemingly less conscious animal, like the curious aye-aye. This creature knows a life of foraging for grubs and lounging in trees– it does not attempt to go further. It is out of its capacity to venture to the stars, but perhaps it looks at the night in awe. Its existence is to live out its life without knowing the grandeur of the night. Perhaps, it even dreams of those swirling mechanisms, we humans regard as galaxies– who is to know the intricate nature of an aye-aye’s consciousness?
We are in a unique position, we humans. We can wonder at speeds that fancy our interests. And we can dissect reality using the data we collect. Yet, this data points to a static conclusion– that our ability to dissect reality is limited. Data, with all its offerings, does not reveal whether meaning exists beyond our own self-interests.
One curious matter is how we humans evolved the capacity to dissect our reality. We like the aye-aye, may be trapped in a dimension that restricts us from going further. Information is bound by our own mental and physical limits. Perhaps we are to analyze the box without ever having the chance to peer in.
There are many suppositions to answer the questions of why we are all here, and whether there is meaning to it all, but the objective reality remains largely– a mystery.
Perhaps as we evolve, we will come to love the uncertainty of it all.