“the universe has crawled by slow stages to a somewhat pitiful result on this earth and is going to crawl by still more pitiful stages to a condition of universal death”
“if this is to be taken as evidence of purpose, I can only say that the purpose is one that does not appeal to me. I see no reason, therefore, to believe in any sort of God.”
Russell’s words are the best summary of this book. Regardless of whether it’s centuries, millennia, or billions of years from now, the universe will inevitably confront its own demise, leading us to question our existence and the existence of all things.
我不断在思考人生意义，有流芳百世，有文化传承，有推动社会进步，有人性利他的闪光点，比如苏联饥荒时，宁愿自己饿死，也要保护种子的几个人，又比如“The thousand brain”的作者认为保留人类的文化比其他的事更重要。然而站在宇宙毁灭论面前，站在本没有free will面前，这些意义是否都不那么有吸引力了？
宇宙“毁灭” 只是宇宙没有终极目标而已，“我”的意义是“我”存在的这几十年向内赋予自己的。赋予自己的意义，不可能跟人类几千年的文明，历史以及各种发现没有关系。也就是说，如果离开了这样的环境 只是自己一个人在某种强大的生命支撑功能的机器体系中成长起来的，没有多少知识和智力 也就赋予不了自己多么丰富和有深度的意义。甚至正是因为我们并不服务于，贡献于，侍奉于某个终极目标，我们当下的这些意义，才更加珍贵。“保留人类的文化” 可以让今后若干亿年的男男女女，都能够像我们这样 在赋予自己生命以独特意义的时候 有所借鉴和启发。
Maybe we don’t have a purpose and there is no final answer awaiting discovery, but we can create our meaning in a glimpse that ignites the darkness of the whole universe.