On a beautiful day, the sun was shining and the gentle breeze was touching the green grass. There was a small family made of a father, a mother, and their four-year-old son taking a walk.
The boy was sitting on his mother's lap while she read him a book. The book was a novel called "A Planet for the Simple Ones", and the father was lying down listening as well.
The mother spoke as she continued reading: "After this farewell that went against House's wishes, he fell to the ground without will. He was full of emptiness and saw nothing with his eyes except the scene of the yellow sky… the end."
After that, an annoyed expression appeared on the father's face and he said: "What a silly novel with an even sillier ending! I would have preferred if you had read any other novel instead."
The mother replied calmly: "Well, Blacky is the one who chose it. Did you prefer another novel, for example?"
The father scratched his hair and said: "Well, as long as this was Black's choice, then it's fine, even though this is not the type of novels I like."
The mother knew that the father's taste was very bad. He always suggested novels that couldn't be finished in less than a month of reading, so she didn't pay attention to him. Instead, she asked the small boy: "So, Black, do you have any questions?"
Little Black Hole had many questions, and many of them were hard to answer. But this time his question was very simple: "Mom, why is the sky blue?"
Black asked the question while looking at the wide sky with his childish eyes.
A simple question, but deeper than what any normal person might imagine. That's what the mother was thinking before a smile appeared on her face and she said:
"Well, that's a wonderful question. If we use logic and science to answer it, the answer would be that Earth's atmosphere turns the white sunlight into blue or violet light, and human eyes are more sensitive to the blue color, so we see the sky like this. But… I know you're not convinced by this answer. Well… I'm not either. It creates more questions, doesn't it?"
Black knew this answer, but he was looking for another meaning he could not express properly.
He was about to speak, but his father spoke before him:
"Yes, what nonsense. The answer is much simpler: the sky is blue because it wanted to be like that… simple and beautiful."
He said this while looking at his wife and child with loving eyes and a smile on his face.
The mother smiled at her husband and said jokingly: "It seems I married a philosopher who doesn't know what he's saying."
The father replied: "What do you mean? Of course I know… And well, I can become a wise man if I want. Just like the sky wanted to be beautifully blue in the day, showing the beauty of the sun at dawn and sunset, and decorated by the moon and stars at night. My point, Black, is… you can be anything you want, just like the sky wanted to be this way. That is the meaning of what I said."
A smile appeared on Black's face despite the confusion in his mind caused by his father's illogical reasoning. "Of course, Dad."
The mother continued with a smile of her own: "What a surprise! I really married a philosopher."
Black and his mother thought at the same time: "What an illogical thing… but… why?"
For a year and a half after these beautiful memories, the world was suffering from a deadly pandemic that killed millions of people in less than a month. And although modern technology had stopped the spread, there were still cases, and no one discovered the cure until a year later.
The person who discovered the cure was Bella, Black's mother. Not only that, but she also invented a device that could enter the human body, detect any new harmful virus, make the body adapt to it, and destroy it as if it had already received a cure. It also notified the devices inside other people and updated the online databases. It was a step toward making humans immortal.
But she did not survive the pandemic and died.
On the day she died, all the news talked about her and her achievements, and about how much progress she brought to humanity. Of course, most of the world no longer cared much about such things.
Two days after her death, Max — Bella's husband — was saying goodbye to the last guests who came to offer condolences. Then he went to Black's room to check on him. Surely, he wouldn't be okay after what happened. Max himself wasn't okay.
Max stood in front of the room's door and knocked: "Black, may I come in?"
Black replied: "Come in."
Max opened the door and found Black lying on his bed, looking at the ceiling.
Max spoke with a rough voice full of sorrow: "Black, don't be sad. This is not the first nor the last time… you know that well."
Black replied: "Don't worry, Dad. I know what you mean. I may be sad now, but not too much. Actually…"
Black's eyes were shining as if they wanted to shed an ocean of tears, but they couldn't.
"Sometimes I think I should feel a deeper sadness, but I can't. My mind never allows me. My mind traps me with 'why' and 'how'. And now I am sitting here thinking about a silly question I can't find an answer to."
Max asked: "Tell me, what is the question, Black? I will do my best to answer you."
Like a six-year-old child, Black asked his father: "Dad… what is the meaning of a person's existence?"
Max's eyes showed signs of sadness, and tears started to appear. His voice was still filled with grief: "Of course it has meaning. That meaning is your unique effect on the world as a human being — or whatever you are… you are its creator, right?"
Black said: "Before I asked you this question, I asked it to Roby — our robot. You know? He said something similar to what you said. But my mind quickly rejected his answer with another question: does this effect still have meaning if the person who made it disappears and becomes like a lifeless rock? Doesn't that mean the effect had no meaning from the beginning?"
The first tear fell from Max's eye, and his voice became sadder as he said: "What are you saying? Of course your mother… her life will always have meaning as long as her effect on the world exists: her research that advanced science, the people who stayed alive because of her, the ones she touched and who can't forget her… me… and you."
Black replied quickly because his mind was still unsatisfied: "Is this effect really important if all humanity will eventually disappear? Even if humans become immortal, the world itself will vanish, and everything in it will end. But even if humans survive the end of the world, then what? What will they do? The world they used to affect is gone. And if the world doesn't end, they would still become immortal and leave behind the desires that their bodies needed for life. Would their consciousness still mean anything if there were no problems left to solve? Would they not become like rocks — things that don't die but don't prove any meaning? And immortal humans also won't give meaning to the lives of those who came before. And even if they do, there are people who lived lives with little effect, and when they died no one remembered them. Does the world's existence truly have meaning? No… my question is: why are humans created special compared to everything else in the world? They can change it, even though maybe nothing they live for has meaning."
Tears fell from Max's eyes, and he covered them with his hand and said: "I don't know… I don't know. These questions are like the one you asked before — why is the sky blue? I answered in a way your mother said was meaningless, and now I understand that my answer was truly silly and without logic. I'm sorry… I can't…"
At that moment, a tear finally fell from Black's eye, and he said: "It's okay, Dad. Your answer — even though my logic can't accept it — when I think about it, I discover I contradict myself. How can something like the world exist? And how can a creature like a human exist without a reason? The world is huge and very complex. How can I know the meaning of its existence or the reason humans are special if I don't know everything in it and all its details? I just… need to search more."
This moment is what defined the meaning of Black's life. That meaning was: to search for the reason of existence.
Max knew that his son was special, smarter than anyone else, smarter than him by far, and that trying to help him directly would only slow him down. But he had to do his duty as a father and protect the trust his wife left him. So he wanted to say something:
"My son… ignorance is bliss, and the search for knowledge is like torturing oneself. I know I can't stop you, so instead I will try to be a good father, and I will try to reach the highest positions in this world only to remove any obstacle that may face you. My son… rely on me."