I have found great peace of mind by having higher values like what Leo talks about, but also I value the expansion of life itself. To me this is the most fundamental value if one has an evolutionary perspective on human development. Life is like water flowing to the lowest point. The lowest point is the vacuum where no life exists. Life takes matter and adds boundless layers of complexity to what was once lifeless, fighting the eternal battle against entropy.
I know mankind has a special roll in this process.
Life has covered every conceivable corner of the planet earth, but what is lacking is tremendous complexity. Life expands "horizontally" Where even a bacteria is a suitable organism to simply convert dirt into life, but there is also "vertical" expansion. Which is evolution.. Not just replicating dna, but becoming more complex filling the negative space which life so wishes to fill with emergent properties.
This is the value of the proliferation of life, to go to the uninhabited place. To put something were there was nothing, influencing the stream of time as it flows to the negative space... where there is no time, or all of time. Filling time up with experience of reality. Having infinite nodes experiencing reality from infinite perspectives.
I am committed to this view of reality. The only way is up... More complexity, more people, more life, more choice, more possibility. All the resources we need are right here in front of us, all we lack is the culture to convert them into meaningful products, and systems which could deliver millions from poverty and oppression.
The most important job is creating the CULTURE of life expansion and human development. Which is why I think Leo is making an enlightened decision starting this forum!
I joined mainly just to post about this kind of stuff. I have an interest in ocean, desert, and space colonization.
These things will eventually be the release valve of population stress and provide technological and social solutions to the rest of the world.
Start meditating, learning to pay attention, exercising, learning new skills, and developing yourself. So we can get to space, and start making new technological advances. If enough people work toward creating a culture of life expansion and human development it will start to become a reality.