Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time with science and humanities focused friends (as opposed to my economics and tech friends). The weighty subjects of life, the mind, the purpose of them, and the wonderment of them have come up repeatedly for whatever reason.

The conversations reminded me of a fascinating psychology book, Soul Dust, and the Wall Street Journal article summarizing the book’s findings:

What is the point of being conscious? Mr. Humphrey made his name many years ago with a famous essay on the evolutionary function of intelligence, arguing that it emerged through natural selection not to solve physical puzzles, as many assume, but to solve social ones—to read minds. Here he attempts a similar explanation for why the impartial spectator of consciousness is watching a magical mystery show. His answer sounds startlingly unscientific, even spiritual: to impress the soul.

What he means is that being enchanted by the magic of experience provides a reason to live. Rather than being an aid to survival, consciousness provides an essential incentive to survive. Enchantment is itself “the biological advantage of being awestruck.” Or, as the poet and Pooh creator A.A. Milne put it, “It’s awful fun to be born at all.”

I am not fully persuaded by this last part of the argument—I prefer to think that the evolutionary advantage of consciousness has to do with the benefits of imagining and influencing future events—but it’s exhilarating to see this crucial question about our existence answered with such intellectual breadth. Scientists are often accused these days of overlooking the awe and wonder of the world, so it’s exciting when a philosopher puts that magic at the very heart of a scientific hypothesis.

It’s fascinating to wonder, “why do I think?” It’s even more amazing to finally have a decent answer.

I’ve always thought that earlier thinkers had it easy.  They got to pick all the low hanging fruits of discovery — not to diminish their contribution but some things seem inevitable to be discovered.  I guess I may be partly right in that it is at least getting harder to make breakthroughs and discoveries in general.