We seek meaning like stars seek gravity — not to escape, but to hold our orbits steady in a universe that has no answers.
Summary: In a meaningless universe, we encounter the three-body problem of existence, mortality, and meaning, occasionally glimpsing moments of fleeting harmony among them. Like three-body problem of celestial bodies although no universal solutions exist, we can still live meaningfully in the face of this adversary.
We live in a universe that has no inherent meaning. The grandeur we witness — galaxies spinning in vast silence, stars flaring into being and fading away, the miracle of life, the flicker of consciousness — are but cascading consequences of inevitabilities, all set into motion by the Big Bang and set of physical laws that emerged.
And within such a universe, we are born. Even birth is not an exception to inevitability. It is the consequence of natural selection — a process that must arise in an energy-limited environment, wherever self-replicating molecules manage to form. And perhaps their formation, too, is inevitable — given enough time, a rich mix of molecular ingredients, and the relentless experimentation of chemistry.
Guided by that same evolutionary current, our species acquired consciousness: a strange and luminous trait that permits us to question the conditions of our own being. It can ask: What am I? Why am I here? Beyond engaging in actions to sustain the biological imperatives that keep me alive — once again, a fingerprint of natural selection — what is the meaning of all that I strive for?
In asking these questions, consciousness finds itself ensnared in a kind of existential three-body problem — caught in the gravitational tangle of existence, mortality, and meaning. No stable solution emerges, only shifting orbits of thought.
Yet sometimes, for a fleeting instant — a glance into someone’s eyes, the accidental brush of fingers — you sense a harmony among those three forces. Existence, mortality, and meaning seem, if only for a breath, to align. And in that stillness you might say: life, despite its fragility and imperfections, is beautiful. You long for that moment to last. But then the doorbell rings — it’s the Amazon delivery, a reminder of the mundane — and the spell dissolves.
In the end, perhaps there is no grand meaning. Perhaps we are simply asked to live within the span of time allotted to us, and to live in such a way that our moments do not feel like drudgery — or the punishment of Sisyphus. And if we can find that way of being, then why consciously choose otherwise?
You are welcome, now and then, to wonder about the meaning of existence. To tangle yourself in the knots of finding life’s meaning. But in those moments, it may help to remember: you are facing a three-body problem. There is no universal answer. But still, you can live — and live well — in its orbit. And if you are lucky, you may even find the Lagrange point.
Ciao, and thanks for reading.
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