Listing entries tagged with meaning

the meaning of life? can you find an answer on the web?   08.17.2005, 3:13 PM

On October 10, 2004, I was sitting with my laptop at a cafe in New York City trying to avoid writing a paper for my first-year humanities class. In a moment of despair, I typed "what is the meaning of life?" into an online forum. Fifty thousand hits and two thousand answers later…

That's the cover copy for David Seaman's first book "The Real Meaning of Life.," due out this September. The book is a print version of the impromptu networked book, generated online in response to his question. Aphorisms like "be grease not glue," and "there is not point to life, and that is exactly what makes it so special," came from Buddhists, born-again Christians, atheists, waitresses, students, and recovering heart attack patients.

The public platform that the web offers ordinary people, introduces a new way to contemplate this perennial question. Typing "what is the meaning of life?" into wikipedia. yields an extensive post with over 500 edits and a lively discussion page. Here is an excerpt:

The person who asks "What is the meaning of life?" is pondering life's purpose, in the context "Why are we here?", or is searching for a justification or goal as in "What should I do with my life"? Thus, we've separated the main query into two different questions: one about the objective purpose of life ("Why are we here?", and the other about subjective purpose in life ("What should I do with my life?"). Many claim that life has an objective purpose, though they differ as to what this purpose is, or where it comes from. Others deny that an objective purpose of anything is possible. Purposes, they argue, are by their very nature purely subjective. Subjective purpose of course varies from person to person. In some ways the quandary is a circular argument, the enquirer is in the midst of life seeking to validate life, or be it the meaning of it.

Books have, traditionally, been vehicles for the contemplation of this circular question. Scripture, scholarly texts, poetry, novels, self-help books, how-to books, grapple with the issue--"why are we here? And what should I do with my life?"--in various ways. It is interesting to see how the question plays out in the interactive space of the web.

Type "what is the meaning of life?" into the Google search engine and it yields 62,300 responses. Including an "Ask Yahoo" page from 1998 in which Juan asks the Yahoo search team to find the meaning of life for him. The letter he gets back reccommends a visit to the Yahoo meaning of life page. It also offers this advice:

Now, if you're looking for the meaning of your life in particular, then we're afraid we have to fall back on the somewhat predictable response: "It's up to you." Many people try to give lasting meaning to their lives by making the world a better place than when they entered it, either through scientific, philosophical, or artistic contributions. Others try by raising children that can themselves make contributions and preserve important societal and religious values for future generations.

There are also quite a few personal web pages that address the question. One particularly poignent example is JaredStory.com a site by and about Jared High, a young boy who took his own life shortly after a violent beating by a school bully. This heartbreaking site is filled with biblical quotations, audio and video of Jared, information about suicide, bullying, and a transciption of the lawsuit filed by his grieving parents.

Taken together these online "answers" create a wonderful mosaic of humanity striving to know itself and to connect with the universe. The web gives us an opportunity to read this interlinked accumulation of wisdom on a scale never before possible.

Posted by kim white at 03:13 PM | Comments (0)
tags: Online , google , jared , life , meaning , networkedbook , search , suicide , web , wiki , wikipedia , yahoo!

tower of babel or trivial pursuit?   12.20.2004, 3:59 PM

Read New York Times Article
In an article in yesterday's NY Times, Alberto Manguel compares the Genesis story of Babel and the library at Alexandria with their alleged modern-day counterpart--Google's commitment to digitize all human knowledge. Are we constructing a modern-day tower of Babel? A monument to the hubris of what might be possible if we could just get a little smarter. Will Google help us find answers to the big questions: where did we come from, and what's the meaning of it all? I went online to find out. I Googled the question "What is the meaning of it all?" and got the following:

In an article in yesterday's NY Times, Alberto Manguel compares the Genesis story of Babel and the ambitions of the library at Alexandria with their alleged modern-day counterpart--Google's commitment to digitize all human knowledge. Are we constructing a modern-day tower of Babel--a monument to the hubris of what might be possible if we could just get a little smarter? Will Google help us find answers to perennial puzzlers like: where did we come from? Is anyone or anything in charge? And, what's the meaning of it all? I went online to find out. I Googled the question "What is the meaning of it all?" and got the following:

The Meaning of Emmanuel
... "What is the meaning of it all?" "What is its purpose?" The human tendency always is to forget origins. And now that Christmas has grown to be such a ...

The Kubrick Site: John Morgan on 2001 vs. 2010
... What is the meaning of it all? Is there a God? What is the purpose of Art? Is there a merging of Art and Science?' Where Clarke in comparison only asks ...

The meaning of life, the universe and everything
... What is the meaning of it all? 'Antennae' colliding galaxies. When we contemplatethe unimaginable vastness of the universe, the incredible diversity ...

London theater musical on stage in London's West End Shaftesbury ...
... But what is the meaning of it all? Well, mainly that the dreamy idealist, Boney, had all he needed in Anastasia Barzee's sweetly trilling Jo and never ...

'Rings' actor: 'It'll be the biggest film of all time'
... What is the meaning of it all? In some ways, that sort of inquiry is completely unfashionable. "I often think one of the reasons people are dismissive ...

Becoming a Wise Elder
... Questions such as "What is the meaning of it all?" and "Does my life make any kind of difference to anyone?" were very unlikely to arise. ...

Psychology Today: Still news
... PT: What is the meaning of it all now? BB: There was a recklessness in Kennedy's life that I didn't see, a sexual recklessness I don't understand. ...

None of these offerings brought me closer to a substantive answer. Demoralized by the thought of having to go through the other 517 possibilities. I decided to respond to the suggestion at the top of my page:
Tip: Have a question? Ask the researchers at Google Answers.

I clicked "Google Answers" and entered my question: What is the meaning of it all?

Then I had to set a price for my question between $2 and $200. I clicked on "How do I price my question?" And found the following guidelines:
*The more you pay, the more time and effort a Researcher will likely spend on your answer. However, this depends somewhat on the nature of your question.
*Above all - try to pay what the information is worth to you, not what you think you can get it for - that is the best way to get a good answer - but only you can know the value of the information you seek.

Hmm, what is the information worth to me?

I took a look at Google's examples to get an idea of where my question might fit on the pay scale. Fifty dollars is the "minimum price appropriate for complex, multi-part questions. Researchers will typically spend at least one hour on $50 questions and be very responsive to follow-up questions." One hundred dollar questions merit two to four hours of "highly thorough research." Examples of hundred dollar questions included "Parking in New York City, and How does infant-family bonding develop?" The two hundred dollar question required researchers to "spend extensive amounts of time (4 hours plus)." Examples of $200 questions included: Searching for Barrett's Ginger Beer, Applications using databases, What is the impact of a baby with Down's Syndrome on its family?

None of those examples seemed to be in the same league with "what's the meaning of it all?" Can a Google researcher find the answer in 4 hours? probably not, although I do wonder what they would come up with. Anyway, the point of all this is that Google is set up to search out trivial, quotidian sorts of things and it will be interesting to see how/if they can make the transition from those who can tell you how to "search for Barrett's Ginger Beer," to gatekeepers of all human knowledge.

Posted by kim white at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)
tags: Libraries, Search and the Web , babel , google , internet , meaning , search , semantic_web , web