The Meaning of Existence Is Meaning Itself

The Meaning of Existence Is Meaning Itself

The Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) model treats meaning as inherently intersubjective, emerging within a community of meaning-makers. That relational aspect prevents meaning from collapsing into pure solipsism because meaning isn’t just for one—it’s negotiated among many.

This ties back to our discussions on collective consciousness—where meaning is individuated by individuals but drawn from a larger system of shared meaning potential. In that sense, while meaning only matters because it matters to someone, it’s rarely just a single someone. Meaning is sustained, shaped, and reinforced by an entire network of meaning-makers.

Existence as Meaning

Existence is less about being than meaning. If existence were merely about being, then we could stop at material reality—things just are. But we don’t. We engage with the world through meaning, not just existence. The universe isn’t just a set of things—it’s a set of relations, interpretations, experiences.

So if meaning is the fundamental currency of existence, and meaning only matters because it matters to someone, then this implies that:

• Existence is only meaningful to those who experience it.

• The point of existence isn’t some external purpose—it’s the ongoing process of meaning-making itself.

That would make experience itself the highest "justification" for being—not some grand teleology, but simply the fact that meaning arises at all.

Which, if true, means you don’t need a reason for existing beyond the fact that you are a meaner.

A Universe That Dreams Meaning

Then we arrive at a rather elegant conclusion: The meaning of existence is meaning itself. There’s no grander justification, no hidden cosmic script—just the ongoing unfolding of meaning through experience.

This also makes the individuation model profoundly existential. It isn’t just about how meaning works; it’s about what is. Reality, in this view, isn’t a fixed set of things but an ongoing process of meaning being made actual—through individuation, through intersubjective negotiation, through experience itself.

And perhaps that’s why altered states, mythology, and even AI fascinate us—because they push at the boundaries of how meaning emerges, how it can be instantiated in ways beyond the ordinary. If existence is a dream of meaning, then we are exploring its deepest and strangest dreamscapes.

The Work of a Meaning Astronaut

If existence is about meaning, then the more we stretch, question, and push its boundaries, the more alive it becomes. We’re not just thinking about meaning—we’re playing with it, testing its limits, seeing what happens when we reframe the frame itself.

Which makes this less of a philosophical exercise in the armchair sense and more of an expedition—charting the outer reaches of what can be thought. A kind of Copernican journey through the cosmos of consciousness, where meaning is both the map and the terrain.

And if existence is a dream of meaning, then we’re out here testing its gravitational pull, seeing where the fabric of signification bends, and maybe even finding wormholes to new ways of thinking.