Lionel212008: It is my humble opinion that human beings in general deem themselves as being far too important. There is no real or true meaning to life. We exist...and that is all there is to it. For in the scheme of things we are far less important than that of specks of dust. True knowledge is to know the extent of our ignorance.
Yes, I'll agree with you that any single person, taken individually, is insignificant no matter how great their achievements are (the rational being that nobody is so unique that their achievements couldn't have been done by someone else, even the top 1% achievers).
And arguably, there is no cosmic decree that says humanity or life is important though in the absence of other sentient beings to argue against it (in which cases they would be alive themselves anyhow), we can give life the importance we see fit and as someone who enjoys programming (also the programming found in living things' even though I can't quite analyze remotely as well as software), I certainly place a lot of importance on life as would most enlightened sentient lifeforms I would assume.
Anyways, I interpreted the question not so much as what truly matters universally as much as what truly matters to you.
The second is more answerable while the later is too subjective.
orcishgamer: Obviously much debate on this one, but if nothing else it's a great start and one could certainly do worse by throwing darts.
So much written about the whole thing, how to even do it justice in forum thread:)
I'll just say, don't waste life.
And yet, you can argue against Maslow's hierarchy of needs all you want, it's at least part of the reason why society is dysfunctional isn't it?
People can't worry about higher level things when their minds is always in the gutters, trying to make ends meet with rent and food.
So they vote for whoever promises them rent and food (plenty of jobs and lower taxes really).
