Hi Lore community!

Thanks so much for your support. We’re super stoked for the enthusiastic reception our project has gotten in the past week, and are hoping to hit our crowdfund goal in the very near future.

In our experimentation over the past few weeks, we’ve found Lore to be an amazing partner for more than just storytelling, crafting brilliant and beautiful essays, poetry, dialogue, and more. As an example of the type of thing Lore will help you make with AI and internet friends, we’re sharing an essay written with Lore by our cofounder @jimmyeatcarbs on the meaning of life. If you’re interested in participating in this effort, please join our crowdfund, enter our Discord, follow us on Twitter, or tell your friends!

Learn more about Lore by reading our launch essay.

What is the meaning of life?

Essay by @jimmyeatcarbs and GPT-3 (contributions in bold), illustrated by VQ-GAN

To answer this question, you first must define the words "meaning," and "life." The concept of "meaning" is completely subjective, and can be interpreted in many different ways.

One definition of the word is "intended to communicate something that is not directly expressed," which evokes the idea that there is some overriding idea about life that we are meant to understand by living it. In this sense, meaning is a belief or philosophy about how to live life.

What is the idea that we are meant to understand by living life? How are we meant to understand it? This can be explained by the concept of memes.

Let me elaborate. Memes are ideas that replicate themselves throughout the human consciousness.

Memes are the building blocks of culture. Through memes, we learn societal norms and how to live with one another.

We also learn how to think about life. Some example memes about the meaning of life include "there is a god," "you are born, you live for awhile, and then you die," "moral behavior means to do what society says is good," etc.

Each of these ideas has been replicated for all of human history through every aspect of our society, including art, religion, governance, and technology. If you don't like the memes that are in power, then you can change them.

Our global human consciousness is shaped by the competing memes of people who all have different interpretations of the question. Each of these different interpretations is like a religion.

Some people choose which memes to embrace but, for others, the choosing is done for them. They are indoctrinated into a meme-based religion by their parents, teachers, and the community.

The path to enlightenment lies in getting to the root of your own consciousness.

This means abandoning your indoctrination and thinking for yourself. When you do this, you will realize that there is no right or wrong path.

There is, in fact, no path after all. The path is an illusion, and it never existed.

There's nowhere to go! The path was always where you were.

This realization, of course, is a meme itself. The question "what is the meaning of life" is completely subjective.

The only way to answer it is to look inside. You are already there.