Leave it to Bill Gates to lay it out in an honest way.  In a review he did of Yuval Noah Harari's new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, recently, he observes that, “So far, human history has been driven by a desire to live longer, healthier, happier lives.  If science is eventually able to give that dream to most people, and large numbers of people no longer need to work to feed and clothe everyone, what reason will we have to get up in the morning?”

     Gates is absolutely right.  In his Brave New World, Aldous Huxley paints a picture of a society in which everyone is happy.  Always.  Designed in test tubes and made to serve a particular function, each person in this society has no cause, really, to be unhappy.  Indeed, tragically, and this is Huxley's point, they cannot.  They do not know how.


     Sure, we'd all like to have easy lives; we'd all like to see everyone on the planet enjoy sufficient amounts of food and shelter.  Who would not?  And I heartily endorse any and all efforts to ensure that this comes about.  But when all this is accomplished, what then will be our vision for ourselves?

     It's a good question.  But we will not be able to answer it in and of ourselves.  For in and of ourselves, that's exactly what we are:  in and of ourselves.
     
     Yet we are far more than physical presence; we are moral, believing, and transcendentally inclined beings.  And we need to acknowledge the truth and reality of such things to know who we really are.
    
     And all that we can be.