Thomas Nagel
The Absurd
Whether what we do now will matter in a million years could make the crucial difference only if its mattering in a million years depended on its mattering, period. But then to deny that whatever happens now will matter in a million years is to beg the question against its mattering, period; for in that sense one cannot know that it will not matter in a million years whether (for example) someone now is happy or miserable, without knowing that it does not matter, period.
And for the life of me, I can't see this as relevant to anything we do -- or to anything we might be feeling now -- without the existence of God. Something or someone has to be around to connect the dots past, present and future. And this someone or something would surely need to have a teleological component. The part where our life can be said to have a meaning or a purpose. Aside from religion, what else is there?
What we say to convey the absurdity of our lives often has to do with space or time: we are tiny specks in the infinite vastness of the universe; our lives are mere instants even on a geological time scale, let alone a cosmic one; we will all be dead any minute.
Of course some rush towards this, grappling, philosophically or otherwise, to fit it into their lives, while others do everything in their power to keep it far, far off in the distance. Or they make it all go away through God and religion. But there it is: "I" in the stupendous vastness of all there is.
What's your "solution"?
But of course none of these evident facts can be what makes life absurd, if it is absurd. For suppose we lived forever; would not a life that is absurd if it lasts seventy years be infinitely absurd if it lasted through eternity?
Again, it always comes down to what each of us as individuals deems the absurd to be. If we interact with others or live a life of solitude and ascribe meaning and purpose to the things we do, the "philosophical absurd" can
for "all practical purposes" become moot. But if we deem it necessary to subsume this existential meaning in an essential meaning and purpose and can find none, the existential meaning is not nothing. One can want to live forever simply because forever is ample time to enjoy the things that bring us satisfaction and fulfilment...the food we eat, the friendships we have, the music we enjoy, the sex we share. Who needs a life that is not absurd for that? In fact, to the extent that many do believe in one or another God or ideology or philosophy or life, their own satisfaction and fulfilment is often truncated by one or another straight and narrow path they are expected to follow.
And if our lives are absurd given our present size, why would they be any less absurd if we filled the universe (either because we were larger or because the universe was smaller)? Reflection on our minuteness and brevity appears to be intimately connected with the sense that life is meaningless; but it is not clear what the connection is.
Cue "the gap" and "Rummy's Rule" here for those like me. The "connection" seems clearly to be far, far, far beyond our grasp.
https://ilovephilosophy.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=195600