Not necessarily. We still have no evidence that consciousness exists off of Earth. The scariest solution to the Fermi paradox is that we are in fact alone, or at least first.

One can even stop just short of solipism and consider the possibility that humans are the only consciousness in the universe.

Granted, this is just a possibility, perhaps a very small one. But we know so little about such things.

My point is that you may have far more of an effect on Consciousness than you think.

> We still have no evidence that consciousness exists off of Earth.

We still have no objective definition of consciousness that would let us determine what it is that would be evidence that consciousness exists, on or off of Earth.

Let me explain that you are in fact immortal. First, you have to see that there is no reason for your brain and my brain to have different "souls" (whatever that may mean). It only appears to you that we are different beings because there is no strong neurological connection between our brains. But there is a connection (albeit very weak), in e.g. electromagnetic and gravity forces between our brains. The universe, of course, really doesn't care about all this. So you could say that we are both one being, and we are one with the universe. This means that we (and everybody else) will only die when the universe ceases to exist. Which is not likely to happen soon, so for all practical purposes, you are immortal.

> This means that we (and everybody else) will only die when the universe ceases to exist.

You're playing a trick there by jumping from brain to atoms, but people do not define themselves by their atoms, but by their consciousness which will not survive death making what you're saying about all being one rather meaningless. So..

> so for all practical purposes, you are immortal.

Not even close, because I cease to exist the second my brain dies and whatever happens to my atoms after my mind is gone is completely meaningless.

> Let me explain that you are in fact immortal. [...] so for all practical purposes, you are immortal.

That is not how the vast majority of people define "immortal".

Unless you're aiming for some kind of uplifting, motivational speech?

Another implication of this line of reasoning is that since there are no inherent boundaries between anything, the universe itself is thus a living, conscious being.

That's a bit pessimist, isn't it? It's a little bit like saying that living is not worth it because you'll die anyway. I think what we do is not about an indefinite future impact or goal, but about the how it impacts us and the people around us today, right now.

I see meaning as something not like a hard drive, where you store data once you are done, but like RAM, where you read, write and modify on the fly, constantly, while the machine is powered on.

Sure, at some point the machine will be powered off you'll be gone, but meaning doesn't have to be everlasting to exist and have an impact.

So much this. For some reason humans have no appreciation for the value of time. Because a relationship ends, doesn't mean it wasn't good while it lasted. Because I have something now, doesn't mean I will have it forever.

I go back and forth between your perspective and the previous posters perspective. In terms of the scope of the universe my behavior is impact-less but as I limit scope my impact grows.

I prefer this perspective because it avoids self importance - an attribute that in my opinion does more harm than good.

I agree. One workaround is to identify with your family or humanity instead of just yourself, then there is a shot at immortality. There are lots of instances of individuals dying in service of a greater good, such as the amoeba Dictyostelid, which when food runs out, climb on top of each other to form a stalk and then die, allowing the rest to climb to the top and form a spore which then explodes and spreads the rest of the amoeba toward greener pastures. Depending on the lifecycle stage, the Dictyostelid takes on the form of a group of individuals, a single animal-like creature, or a single plant like creature. Pretty amazing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictyostelid

Well, I think this is easily falsifiable. You are here because your ancestors, long deceased, reproduced. Clearly their life had meaning as expressed by your existence.

Whether or not they continue to exist in some other reality has no bearing on the fact that you exist now, thanks to them.

If there is no afterlife, then I'm immortal: the end of my life is equivalent to the end of the universe, end of time. And in my infinite (!) life I associate certain understandings to certain things and certain events: that's meaning. This is not particularly an illusion, as it's real and there in my mind, and one way or another, abstract things exist. The illusion is the universal phenomenon itself, a spectacle we briefly assist and affect.

If there is an afterlife, I'm immortal. Thus again meaning exists, this time so in accordance with your definition thereof.

Therefore, meaning exists.