Do you rely on the "proof of money+taxes" provided by society? or do you have a different perspective? are you vegetarian or something? only free software? I am curious to know what moral framework people are operating under.
I don't believe I need to justify my existence. I'm here, I'm living a life that I hope doesn't leave too big a footprint on the planet, and I'm enjoying that life (most of the time, anyway).
I use both free and non-free software all the time. I have a gaming PC with Windows and a laptop with Trisquel on it for my daily driver. Call me a hypocrite if you must but you can get the best of both worlds if you allow for that and aren’t so zealous for ‘the one true way’.
I would only feel a need to justify my existence if my baseline activities gave a net burden on the world, like if I wrote robocalling software for a living. Or maybe if my activities were inconsequential to anyone at all.
I suppose the moral framework I've got is that you don't have to justify your existence. For me I try to basically do what I think is probably right, or at least make personal changes in that general direction (e.g. I'm not vegan or vegetarian but I do skip meat/animal products a lot). But you know, existence comes before any of that.
Beyond that it's not really justification so much as survival instinct. But it wouldn't be right to make others justify their existence, so you shouldn't have to justify your own.
My existence is self-justifying, or more correctly, requires no justification. As Rand put it, life is an end in itself, i.e. the ultimate end of all your actions and purpose.
Not OP, but for anyone who’s curious I believe they may be referencing George Bernard Shaw’s infamous quote [0] (which FWIW I think expresses a morally abhorrent way of going about things)
It’s just a gift from the gods(don’t waste your time reach them it’s impossible).
You can just do whatever you can/wan’t but remember you always face the consequences and thats it.
(Warning: Semi-religious response) We are, as Lutheran theologian Philip Hefner once put it, "created co-creators" doing our infinitesimal bit in advancing The Great Project of the last 13.8 billion years (that we know of), helping to build a universe.
I think the OP is suggesting obligation to the 'collective' which is a common perspective in other countries, but not North America (in particular). Or maybe to 'God', whoever or whatever that may be.
In either case, I agree with everyone else here: I didn't ask to be born, so assuming it harm none, do what thou wilt.
13.8 Billion years ago, the universe was created in a magical moment that we have yet to understand.
370,000 years after that, it cooled down enough to finally let protons bind to electrons, and the first atoms formed (99% hydrogen, 1% helium).
100M years after that, much of that hydrogen gas collapsed into stars, which underwent nuclear fusion to produce helium, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and other heavier elements up to iron. Some of those stars went supernova and released their enriched guts out into the universe.
After billions of years of that, we had enough heavier elements to form rocky planets, of which one is the planet we're on now.
Somehow on this wet rock, organic molecules formed and found ways to replicate themselves inside of membranes. A billion years after this wet rock came into existence, some of these replicating membranes bound to each other and started to act in harmony to ensure the continued replication of the whole group of membranes.
For another billion years, these groups of self-replicating membranes got larger and more complex. Eventually, one of them grew opposable thumbs, a large brain, and started to make tools. Those hairy apes, my ancestors, against all odds, for millions of years, fought against wolves, tigers, the elements, starvation, and each other to form an unbroken lineage that led to the existence of my parents.
36 years ago, my parents made love, and from half a billion sperm, I was the fastest. I was an accident, in both the unplanned pregnancy sense of the term and the truly cosmic nature of my improbable existence.
You want me to justify my existence? My amigo, after all that, I don't need to justify anything. I won the lottery of lotteries. My moral framework is OMG WTF I'M HERE. I'm just here to make the most of it and enjoy my 80+ (cross my fingers) trips around this boring run-of-the-mill hot pulsing orb of gas.
You're a combination of a lucky, healthy, fast sperm AND an equally fast, healthy, and lucky EGG. One egg survives to ovulate out a handful because it outpaces and outgrows all the other eggs vying to ovulate. Without the egg, there is no you.
Sure. I've had a go and in 40 days have over 700. At 501, you can downvote, which, I guess, is nifty, but it's a pointless (heh) system, so we're really talking about how to write comments people like.
The trick, I've found, is to say things that are interesting, say things that embody conventional or popular thought but are not banal, reference other interesting and similar things, carefully make humor or very carefully make an occasional smart snarky remark (risky, as discouraged). I've found stating controversial views to be poison, and attacking sacred cows to be double poison, so don't rush in to criticize Elon for example. Frame anything you can't cite as your opinions/thoughts instead of as facts to avoid errant critics, and if you have anything controversial that you really want to tackle, hypothesize about it, don't just plonk it down. Make it seem like you're considering all sides so people don't feel threatened.
Also, read the new submissions page instead of the front page, as commenting on a popular well-commented article is pissing in an ocean of piss. You want people to see only your comment on a submission and think "hm, nice comment". Lastly, change your settings to show dead posts, so you can vouch for one now or then. There are some interesting ones, and some inflammatory ones, and many get robotically flagged by default. Many people choose not to see such posts, so you have an edge there.
Many of us were born with with significant talents useful for one of the history of the world's most lucrative professions. I believe we have a bit of duty to do good for most of the rest of the people who never had the same chance, to live high quality of lives for all of us.
My parents had sex which resulted in me being born. They raised me according to the mores of their culture. I met a woman, had sex with her which resulted in my children being born. We raise them according to the mores of our cultures.
I do not need anything more - nor less - to 'justify' my existence.
The real question here would be to whom people would 'need' to justify their existence. That may be a role more suited to imaginary cloud people - ${god} - than to real-life ones who can and certainly will abuse such power to their own advantage.
As far as I can tell, I don't need a permission to exist. As long as I can secure the criticals -- food, water and sleep -- then nobody can deny me my right to exist (except if they actively pursue and kill me).
And absolutely surely, 100%, with zero chance of being wrong, I know I'll die sometime in the future.
As far as I can tell, everything else is optional. Our intellectual and pleasure pursuits are to make the entirety of our existence more fun or fulfilling.
If you are showcasing the XY problem here and are actually asking "what's the meaning of your life?" then sure, many people can tell you theirs but it's questionable if that will help you discover yours.
If you are a rich / middle-class USA software-related engineer with a lot of money to spare who is bored... well... just go travel Brazil, Eastern Europe, South-East Asia. Maybe don't consider Bangladesh because you can get very depressed.
Point is: go grab some perspective. I've noticed many Americans on this forum who get pretty well-off in terms of money and then become passive and depressed.
That's very fixable. If that's your problem then fret not: there are literally millions of places and likely hundreds of millions of people in whose lives you can make a true positive difference. I'd suggest go out there and give it a try or two.
My moral framework is be happy and do no harm, and that extends to preserving others from receiving harm.
I’m the guy who will rescue ants from drowning in the pool (do no harm) and make life decisions that equate to increased happiness. I manage my own time and never let those take it from me.
I believe that others should be free to be happy as well. I also will go out of my way to take on bullies, legally of course. Everyone deserves to be happy and that’s what makes me happy.
You needn't use your real name, of course, but for HN to be a community, users need some identity for other users to relate to. Otherwise we may as well have no usernames and no community, and that would be a different kind of forum. https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme...
Just exist. Otherwise you fall for the sunken cost fallacy. Don’t justify … act towards what you want with the “bonus” days you are granted or enjoy the freedom to just perceive and not act.
I exist only as HN comments. An ordered set of bits on machines near and far. I spring into being when someone reads them, linger for a moment when they are thought about and even perhaps replied to, then I disappear again in to the void awaiting existence again in the mind of the next reader.
I have an incomplete set of rules in this life which I've developed over the past decade, after spending one decade being raised Roman Catholic, then 2 decades as a die hard atheist. I now consider myself an omnitheistic solipsist. I use that term because it sounds cool and usually gets religious recruiters and cultists to leave me alone. The idea is that all things, not just religion based literally everything imaginable and more, has already happened, is currently happening and will continue to happen indefinitely. Sentient beings each live within their sphere [or other shape or even shapeless] of reality. Their reality is theirs, their beliefs are true for them so long as they believe it. When interacting with other sentient forms, the realities mingle. Shared beliefs bring agreement, conflicting beliefs repulse but both are still truth for each entity until one truth overwhelms the other and a belief is changed or they part ways and continue existing in their own reality. Time is a fractal recursing, your future may be my past, my dreams could be a past life in my future. Each and every being, as well as those which are considered lifeless to humans, are made up of many 'points', which I use the term 'philote', shamelessly stolen from Orsen Scott Card's Ender saga. They are not a score nor are they sharp. They are like the mathematical point on a line or in a graph. These philotes exist as part of reality as we know it, or perhaps a smidge beyond our abilities to detect right now. They form clusters within living things, planets, everything, every animal, plant, rock, molecure, atom etc. They cannot cease to exist. That is the primary rule, they are never destroyed. Yes, that breaks the 'already happened, will continue to happen' statement made earlier, if you're still with me this far, just keep going. If one ever appears to be destroyed it is actually shifting orthogonally through time and reality to its next existance. Some move backwards through what we know as time. Some spring forward and backwards in a spiral. There is chaos and there is order. It is all part of 'the big bang and the big suck'. As humans currently exist we are in a post-bang era. As the universes expand black holes grow larger and over a long time will eventually grow, consuming each other until all that is left is a singularity, all mass and all of the philotes joined into one. The black hole inverts, becoming the next big bang. This cycle is endless and each time it expands it is doing so simultaneously as the opposite contracting. An infinite number of these cycles are all infinitely occuring. When you meet someone and instantly become friends or when you see a stranger and kow for some unknown reason that you don't like or trust that person, that is your philotes within you remembering or recognizing other philotes from their past or their future. Or they see their path and want to take a different one. Remember, at some point all was one, this was all part of a big plan, except it is not planned at all. It is a story being told in every way, an act of boredom brought on by the singularly, wanting to experience it all. Or the inner turmoil it felt of wanting to feel happy while kowing it ust feel sad to do so. It is a spinning yin-yang, a lemniscate to the infinite power angled an infinite degrees. At times our philotes guide us, at times they let us take them to a new experience. You have already mapped out your life, from a different existance, tweaking events to push you in the direction you think you need to go to properly understand the later lessons in your current life.
To continue slightly less abstract, I also have made more low level rules for my current run. They are based off the rules all religions I know of have, the most important being a variation on the Golden Rule. "Treat everyone as if they were a friend or close family member." That is all most should ever need. I still made more, a work that is still in progress which I hope to never complete and probably will never publish. I wont even share them all here, since I doubt many have read this far and because of self doubt. "Always look out for #1 and always be prepared for a #2." Yes, there is a poop joke in there. There's enough ambiguity as well to allow for multiple interpretations. "Plan ahead, don't wait; take care of your needs, before it's too late." That's the other wording for the same rule. "Only desire what you require. Create more than you consume." A rule made when I quit watching the news, TV and movies and quit playing videogames. "Lift people up before taking anyone down." It helps to gather an army first but more important, if you lift enough people up, there's no one left at the bottom. Lower the bar. "Electric chairs for billionaires. They only time it is theft, is when the victim needs it more." Emphasis on "need" and if you aren't a billionaire, you are a victim. "If an opponent angers you, you've already lost. Any enemy can be defeated with unconditional love." That one probably needs more explaining. Instead, I'll try to end this existentialist madness. My first post and/or comment ever on this site.
To answer the initial question: Left, indented once if "your existence" starts the first sentence of a paragraph. Centered if it is the topic or chapter title. To anyone who read this entire thing, thank you and I hope you have a nice day.
Something decided that it was better for me to be here than not be here. I think it was God, but I'm not always sure what He expects, so I'm just trying to be better today than I was yesterday.
TL;dr With gratitude and the feeling that this is probably as good as it gets?
Slightly longer version. I grew up thinking I was hot s#1t. You know smart, hard working, loving family (with its own annoying hateable quirks), destined to do great things, Yada Yada yada. You can see where this is going.
Many things didn't pan out and some things lucked out. Sadly my speciality had nothing to do with it. Heck with a lot of help and support and mentoring etc I was guided to see that the luckiest of luckiest rarely deserve their good fortune any more than the most downtrodden of the downtrodden deserved their misfortune. So much so often comes down to environment and luck.
While we are here might as well enjoy the ride, work on things you are passionate about, cherish loved ones and don't harm others (atleast transitively by X degrees).
"Everyone is welcome to have nothing to say for themselves", which various parties may or may not agree with. I personally find it acceptable, but generally I find that those at least questing for meaning or trying to find options are far far better & more interesting people in my book. Not required, but having something to offer this world is recommendable.
I believe I have the possibility of helping undo some of the top down control & command that capitalistic computing has imposed upon us & help create more flexible & open new paths we can freely explore & make our own. I believe we can re open authentic computing experiences & reenable creative computing & endless possibility, and I think I might be able to help. My belief & social activism in owning the means of communication is, if not the material/software contribution I'd love to make, a voice towards the better un-dimmed un-grimmed future I hope we can make tracks towards.
Other basic good-personisms like humility, trying hard, being sympathetic to the vastness & teaming chaoticness & happenstanceness of it all, encouraging others, being inquisitive & hopeful... I strive to be a good cosmic consciousness, meager though I & we be.
Surprising how many people take the stance that they don't have to do anything.
It's not that I disagree or anything, it is totally irrefutable, but many people have a sense of responsibility nevertheless and they feel a lot better when they've managed to justify themselves somehow. For example I know many people who refuse to go as guests to others peoples homes without bringing a gift with them.
Some people feel entitled to their space due to some contribution they've made to the collective or just simply because of their beliefs being "correct" .. there's all sorts, however, I am not expecting people to have that much self-reflection.. still it surprises me that most of the people who thought to answer would be of the "I have no need to justify myself" persuasion. I wonder what the lurkers think..
Although I agree with all the anti-foundationalists here (i.e. “badges? we don’t need no stinking badges!”) I must say that in my heart, I like to feel that I am a good person. To accomplish that, I find people I can help and I try to help them.
I want to feel that I am a good citizen. I want to be respected by people whom I respect.
