I’m kind of starting to believe in reincarnation. So far human consciousness is the only kind of consciousness that we know of, and that makes human life incredibly precious. But for a lot of history, we’ve thrown away countless human lives like they were nothing.
I think the “point” of us being here is to continually learn and evolve so we collectively send humanity in a better direction. If life in the past was “nasty, brutish, and short,” then we are generally making gains toward a more humane way of life. Humanity’s collective quality of life seems to be trending slowly upward, and our body of knowledge keeps growing as people build on the discoveries of past generations.
So then what? Hopefully we’ll learn how to have a civilization that doesn’t harm earth’s biosphere, and coexists peacefully with it instead. And/or we become a spacefaring civilization.
Another big problem to solve is how to give everyone humane living conditions (and the allocation of resources). A huge portion of humanity is lacking basic human rights and necessities like enough food, water, and shelter. If we can get all humans the bottom parts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we will probably have a huge renaissance of scientific discovery and creativity. A lot of people who are probably geniuses have no access to basic resources and education today. The cure for cancer could be locked inside the head of a kid who never learned to read.
So my best-case scenario is that we basically become Star Trek. The reason for that is to make a stand against entropy and darkness. If we’re the only conscious beings in the universe, then it’s incredibly important that we use our consciousness to its full potential. That means safeguarding the earth, exploring the universe, treating each other with kindness, and giving everyone the chance to develop their talents to the fullest.
And then I guess at some point the universe itself will go pop, but at least we’ll have done our best?