Summary: "The common goal accepted by society - happiness, wealth, quality of living (comfort level), etc - has no set goal."
Table of contents:
1 Our human goals
2 Where is the line drawn?
3 King Solomon.
4 Goals and progress mathematically.
1
Think of the ideal citizen, the perfect person in the way they behave, a model for society. This person breaks no traffic laws, goes to college (but not more than he/she needs to), goes to work everyday and comes home peacefully. He/she volunteers for humanitarian organizations and donates to the Red Cross. This is all to promote "peace on earth and goodwill towards men".
So what is society trying to do? Make everyone happy. That makes sense. That's the general feel of politics and most formal organizations. Business arenas are only slightly different, looking to appease more than alleviate. Personally we work towards intelligence, sophistication, a good solid station in life, a long rich retirement.
These are our goals.
2
But what exactly are we shooting for? Will we be satisfied when we solve world hunger, maybe if we stop global warming, perhaps once everyone makes over $30,000 a year, or would you only be satisfied with $40,000? What is the numerical limit we're working towards?
When will we be satisfied, what will fill us up and satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts? Maybe we look towards relationships, sex, or if you have higher yearnings, some lifelong friends whom you can chat with in your old age. But tell me, why makes a comfortable, friend-filled retirement fulfilling? Or to put it another way, what is the straw that breaks the camels back, what single thing pushes an unsatisfactory life into an OK life?
How on earth can you draw that line? What equation will you use, what algorithm? What research can you do?
Friends, if you don't know what you're looking for, you'll never find it.
3
King Solomon was insanely rich, famous, and wise. He had gold coming out of his ears and kings and queens came from all over to visit his court. However, Solomon wasn't satisfied, we went looking after fulfillment.
Ecclesiastes 2:10-11 "I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."
He tried (in order) wisdom, pleasure, folly, toil, progress, and riches. The whole book of Ecclesiastes is his search. But he found nothing. Even if he had felt satisfied during this life, nothing that he gained would have helped him once he died. Ecclesiastes 9:5 "For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they will have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten."
4
An arbitrarily set goal (say a retirement nest egg of 1 million dollars) is futile because, when compared with something far greater than it (people who are billionaires), that status of living no longer seems worthwhile.
Mathematically we could say that for any goal 'a', we can find a number 'b' such that 'a' compared to 'b' (represented by a/b) is arbitrarily close to zero. (This is the theory of limits, to prove that a/b can approaches zero as b approaches infinity)
Likewise we can disprove progress. For any small improvement can look meaningless compared to a final goal. Mathematically again we can say that for any progress 'delta a' we can find a goal 'b' such that delta a/b approaches zero to an arbitrarily small error value.
