How old were you when you realized that all meaning is entirely collectively generated by human beings, with no objective or external cause or guarantee? That nothing “means” anything at all outside our deciding to ascribe it meaning, including our own lives?

For me it was learning order of operations (pedmas) - I kept asking why they used that order. I believed there was an *actual* objective answer to the math question, and we had to use the right order to get it. The teacher telling me it was all convention was mind blowing.

There’s a Star Trek TNG episode featuring an interminable war. The sides agree to stop bombing each other, and instead just run simulations. They tally the dead, then sacrifice the appropriate number. The meaning of life determined by game rules.

The twist? That’s us, too.