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There's a very good reason why you would design a bridge to collapse.

Read the first one here:
http://www.s-anand.net/blog/ca...

I see you must be a bridge designer.

http://www.s-anand.net/blog/calvin-and-hobbes-dad-explains-science/

Obviously many parents parents need to be more like Calvin's Dad. He was never stumped by Calvin's science questions.

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Wow, I got the "where does the sun go" question just last week from my daughter and, as we were sitting in a cafe, we scrunched up some paper napkins to make a sun and earth.

The trickier one was "who made mosquitoes?" and I think I need to work on my explanation of evolution :-)

Obviously many parents parents need to be more like Calvin's Dad. He was never stumped by Calvin's science questions.

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Where do you think wind comes from ... magic?

Trees sneezing.

Of course, like any good slashdotter, I haven't read the article, so I don't know what education level this applies to. But I challenge my four-year-old daily on things she can understand, to see if she has put any thought into what she thinks of as true. I'm not too good at it, by my aim is to be like this guy: http://www.s-anand.net/Calvin_and_Hobbes_Dad_explains_science.html

And if you didn't start hitting div by zero errors in BASIC when you were a youngster, I may have to ask for your nerd credentials back.

I prefer Calvin's perspective on art.

I prefer Calvin's perspective on art.

I prefer Calvin's perspective on art.

I prefer Calvin's perspective on art.

I'm a simple person with no special knowledge. No one will remember me. And that's the case with most of the other people in the world (though most of them don't want to acknowledge that fact). Even if they have children, most people are meaningless in the long run.

Must a life have "meaning" in order to be enjoyable and satisfactory? When I noodle around on my guitar, there's no meaning, but it's fun. When children spend the day making sand castles, knowing that they'll be gone when the tide comes in, they still spend hours playing at it. What's the meaning of a snow angel, or of the tune I whistle while waiting for water to boil on the stove?

There's an old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon where Calvin asks, "What if there's no afterlife? Suppose this is all we get?" Hobbes looks around, thinks for a minute, and replies, "Oh, what the heck. I'll take it anyway." (And Calvin continues, "Yeah, but if I'm not going to be eternally rewarded for good behavior, I'd sure like to know NOW.")

The same idea goes for a "meaningless" life: what the heck. I'll take it anyway.

Hindus call the idea "lila" - the universe is the "purposeless play", the "spontaneous game".

If coming at it from that direction doesn't help you, consider the question of just what it means to have a "meaningful" life. Is it just passing on your genes? Then Issac Newton had a meaningless life. Is it being remembered after you die? That makes the whole thing just a popularity contest, like picking the homecoming queen. I'm not willing to leave the "meaning" of my life (if any) in the hands of what other people do.

The question of the meaning of life is not one that is answered by objective science. There's no organelle in a cell that creates meaning the way ribosomes create proteins, no "coefficient of meaning" in quantum electrodynamics.

If "meaning" is anything, is part of our subjective experience. That means that if you really want a meaning for your life, you get to decide what it is, then set about making it happen.