The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us - Rebecca Goldstein

This post has 5 comments with rating of 4/55

• 
  stenka25
  January 31st, 2026
  

  

  Thanks a lot, werky.

  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us - Rebecca Goldstein
• 
  johnbeene
  February 1st, 2026
  

  Thank you!

  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us - Rebecca Goldstein
• 
  pollux1900
  February 5th, 2026
  

  

  Thank you werky.

  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us - Rebecca Goldstein
• 
  apnea
  February 8th, 2026
  

  

  If you are lucky, you will matter to a handful of people in your life, which is but a teeny tiny ‘BLIP’ in a universe that is so huge and meaningless that it drives some men crazy. This universe might be one of trillions of universes in an even huger multiverse.

  Why, why why am I here? What is my purpose?
  All I know is that nature abhors a gradient and humans, like all like forms are gradient reducers and the day you stop is the day you start to die. 1 year of life reducing gradients or a hundred - you did your part in helping the universe kill itself/equalize all gradients.
  ~~~~

  *The purpose of life is to disperse energy*

  “The truly dangerous ideas in science tend to be those that threaten the collective ego of humanity and knock us further off our pedestal of centrality. The Copernican Revolution abruptly dislodged humans from the center of the universe. The Darwinian Revolution yanked Homo sapiens from the pinnacle of life. Today another menacing revolution sits at the horizon of knowledge, patiently awaiting broad realization by the same egotistical species.

  The dangerous idea is this: the purpose of life is to disperse energy.

  Many of us are at least somewhat familiar with the second law of thermodynamics, the unwavering propensity of energy to disperse and, in doing so, transition from high quality to low quality forms. More generally, as stated by ecologist Eric Schneider, “nature abhors a gradient,” where a gradient is simply a difference over a distance — for example, in temperature or pressure. Open physical systems — including those of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere — all embody this law, being driven by the dispersal of energy, particularly the flow of heat, continually attempting to achieve equilibrium. Phenomena as diverse as lithospheric plate motions, the northward flow of the Gulf Stream, and occurrence of deadly hurricanes are all examples of second law manifestations.

  There is growing evidence that life, the biosphere, is no different. It has often been said the life’s complexity contravenes the second law, indicating the work either of a deity or some unknown natural process, depending on one’s bias. Yet the evolution of life and the dynamics of ecosystems obey the second law mandate, functioning in large part to dissipate energy. They do so not by burning brightly and disappearing, like a fire torching a forest, but through stable metabolic cycles that store chemical energy and continually reduce the solar gradient. Photosynthetic plants, bacteria, and algae capture energy from the sun and form the core of all food webs.

  Virtually all organisms, including humans, are, in a real sense, sunlight transmogrified, temporary waypoints in the flow of energy. Ecological succession, viewed from a thermodynamic perspective, is a process that maximizes the capture and degradation of energy. Similarly, the tendency for life to become more complex over the past 3.5 billion years (as well as the overall increase in biomass and organismal diversity through time) is not due simply to natural selection, as most evolutionists still argue, but also to nature’s “efforts” to grab more and more of the sun’s flow. The slow burn that characterizes life enables ecological systems to persist over deep time, changing in response to external and internal perturbations.”

  More….

  https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10674
  ~~~~~~
  I consider purpose distinct from meaning, which is something you must build and or find for yourself. All life, by design and necessity must adhere to the MPP.
  The MPP explains why the humans appear to be on a suicide mission. It explains Overshoot, which is going to result in a mass human die-back or human extinction later this century.
  It unavoidable unless there is a wizard among us who can usurp the laws of physics, chemistry and biology, because the shit is baked in. Even if the humans stopped, it would only slow it down.

  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us - Rebecca Goldstein
• 
  bayesian
  February 16th, 2026
  

  

  Thanks!

  The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us - Rebecca Goldstein

Add a comment (please log in before commenting)