As humans, we have had one purpose for as long as we have been around: to reproduce and drive civilization forward. Reproduction has found its way from the tiniest microbes to the largest mammals. Any organism, sentient/conscious or not, has one purpose: to reproduce. But humans are the only ones with another goal: drive civilization forward. These two traits make humans unique, the latter more than the former. All biological life tends to replicate itself to save its species, and most conscious life (only one species on earth has that title) tends to want to drive civilization forward to help the next generation better itself. However, things have changed.
Humans in the 21st century don’t want to reproduce. Whether this is from the fears of climate change, the uncertainty of mRNA vaccines, increased infertility in the population, increased birth control usage, inability to afford having children due to high costs of living, or overpopulation, more and more people around the world are planning to live their lives without having to bear a child. In a way, this transcends biology. But this isn’t the only issue at hand.
Driving civilization forward is one of the many great traits of humans. Science, math, physics, and all other disciplines have gotten this far because of the hard work and tireless efforts of the most brilliant humans in history, sacrificing their lives and freedoms to drag civilization through its darkest times and create a better future. However, intelligence has been digitized in the form of artificial intelligence (AI). What’s the point of having the most intelligent humans taking charge when AI can invent and innovate faster and more efficiently. Why would you keep error-prone, greedy, and power-hungry humans in charge of pushing forward human civilization when machines do it much faster? It’s a no-brainer. Although, one particular question remains: what good are humans?
If we don’t need to reproduce to save our species or invent/innovate to save our species, then what’s the meaning of life? To consume? To love? To relax? What’s the point of living if your contributions to civilization aren’t for the greater good or any good? What’s the point of having children if their contributions (the contribution of having offspring) are not registered because there are too many people on the planet? It seems like we have come to a crossroads on our path to understanding the universe, a crossroads that doesn’t clarify which way is correct. We have no purpose as humans anymore.
The name of the game is power, money, control. No one cares about the masses dying of starvation and poverty, and as a collective, we don’t care about our rapidly decaying planet. We’ve all lost the game of life, and there’s no restart button. Let’s hope Elon Musk gets us to Mars quickly because the human species has a good chance of going extinct by 2100 if we don’t get our act together. The world is absolutely strange, but this isn’t new.