• Interfacing

    It is in my nature as a human to do things. After all, we are all bound to roll boulders up the hill only for them to fall down again. In my life up until now, I have found meaning - or at-least tried to - via things like learning, connecting, understanding, etc. But more often than not, I find my time and effort and attention being involuntarily spent on things that are entirely meaningless to me on a personal level. Still, I have to drudge on forwards in those endeavours because if I don’t things will get much harder for me. It is because of this disconnect between what I want to do and what I actually have to do, that I feel conflicted...

  • Meaning

    There used to be a time in my life when I was very much into the idea of figuring out the meaning of my life. Here is an attempt I made at deriving the meaning of my life using logic and first principles: I have experienced my external reality to be consistent in nature, which means that I can essentially assume it to be objectively real. Absolute truth does not exist, but I can employ my human intellect to work towards trying to understand facets of existence more deeply. I am a consciousness in an organic body, with a load of accumulated and built in baggage, living in a state of deep connection with others. Existence has no inherent meaning, as death erases everything in...

  • Religion

    "The search for truth is more precious than its possession." – Albert Einstein. I feel like I should declare at the outset that I am an atheist. I do not believe in anything that cannot be justified by hard evidence; this rules out almost everything that is considered spiritual or supernatural. According to me, there is no real truth value in any religion's claims about our physical, material world. The scientific method is the best and only tool that we can use to figure out objective truths about our universe. Thanks to science, we can communicate at the speed of light, treat illnesses that used to kill millions, or even send a probe to one of Jupiter's moon. It is absolutely astounding how science has...

  • Veritas

    I am truly an edge case—I do not fit in any common definition of a normal person. I’m just a body with a brain moving on autopilot through this harsh world. It has been several years since I’ve been aware of the gaping hole at the centre of my being. While other people around me appear to have motivations, desires, and personalities, I have no coherent sense of identity, of who I really am. And instead of being sure of my self-image, I’ve always just pretended to be something I am clearly not. Right now, I am playing the role of a writer, whilst it is fully clear in my mind that I am not one. I find it hard to fit myself into labels...

  • Existentialism

    An unexamined life is not worth living. -Socrates. Welcome to the Universe Human beings are born into this world a blank slate, innocent and helpless, and pretty much instantaneously, the people around us start imposing their norms, values, and ideas on us. We all live our lives inside of society, and the people around us are always keen to teach us how to be a functioning member, through means both direct and indirect. Humans have been predisposed as social beings to construct stories and narratives which help us wrestle with the fundamental questions that beguile us. All cultures have origin stories, mythologies, and narratives that aid us in making sense of our place in the world. Religions, traditions, and norms still play a huge role...