Your Purpose Exists. Here's Why:

The Human Instrument

Cuckfucius here—welcome back to the Cyber Cultivators¹ Collective.

This is a letter to me when I was 16 and overly concerned with questions like “what is my purpose in this life?” and “does life purpose even exist?”

I’m convinced it does now, in a way. And I more or less see how to fulfill it. This essay pertains to such questions.

The human being is a bounding on raw potentiality. Potentiality can be split out into discernable spectra or domains and then bounded to create all manner of individuation.

An obvious example of this is the electromagnetic spectrum:

A strand of “Raw Potentiality” splits off, and becomes “The Electromagnetic Spectrum” domain. Which the human organism then bounds off a section of that, “Visible Light”, to directly perceive.

Animals like butterflies can directly see UV light, and we cannot. UV light is not within our bounding.

You can think of a human as a massive bundling of such boundings. We can only see a slim band of electromagnetic radiation. We can only hear sound between ~20Hz and ~20,000Hz. Bats can hear sound up to ~200,000Hz.

It’s not just concrete things; the human organism can only jump maximum 51 inches. 0-51in is the bounding on the domain of “jumping potentiality”. This can also be expressed as 0-70% of body height. Squirrels can jump 1000% or 10x higher than their height.

We can only talk within a certain range of volume and frequency. We can only grip, kick, or punch with so much force. We can only think so quickly, run so fast, shit a certain number of times a week, kiss a certain number of people, and so-on. There are upper and lower bounds to everything we could ever think to attempt.

The human organism operates within a range. A huge, complex range, but a range nonetheless. We can always find or create new domains of potentiality, but will inevitably be bounded within those domains. We can push the boundaries, overcome them and “make the impossible, possible”, or “set a world high jump record”. But that only slightly grows the bound; the bound remains, if slightly larger.

A set of 100 billion billion boundings on every conceivable domain in every conception of that domain (ie, the domain of “jumping potentiality” as expressed by raw number of inches and/or percentage of body height and/or any other relevant conception).

This is what a human is. A 100-billion-dimensional yoke on the formless undulating ocean of Raw Potentiality. This is what a squirrel is too, though the yoke of the squirrel is maybe a 95-billion-dimensional yoke on the formless undulating ocean of Raw Potentiality. For squirrels cannot operate heavy machinery. They will never get their forklift certification. So they cannot access forklift levels of individual expression.

Let’s make it simple. A hammer is a 2-billion-dimensional yoke on the formless undulating ocean of Raw Potentiality. You can only throw it so far; you can only slay so many enemies with it; you can only have so many thunder gods wield it in popular culture. There could be 100 billion Thors. We could live in a world where every Marvel release was just a Thorgy of Thor-on-Thor action, hammers in fist, fisting hammers.

Some boundings are more “obvious” or “inherent” in that they “come up more” in the play of everyday life. A sensible man would not concern himself with the always-looming but highly rare threat of a pop culture Thorgy explosion. No. A sensible man holding a hammer would concern himself mainly with nails.

Does a hammer have purpose?

What is your intuition here? There’s no right answer. But my intuition is that a hammer more or less has a purpose. It doesn’t have to be a Divine Purpose or some lame shit like that; a hammer’s purpose is to hit a nail. Or take a nail out. Mostly.

In a certain moment, a hammer’s purpose could more readily be to turn an intruder’s gonads into Gonad Paste.

A hammer’s purpose is not to hit any nail. The hammer could be in America, and there are plenty of nails in Africa. But unless a zany series of coincidences occur, an American hammer’s purpose lies with American nails. More specifically, the nails in front of it in a given moment. These nails, right dang here and now.

The hammer’s purpose is constructed by what it is, PLUS ++ AND what is around it. A hammer is a simple set of boundings. A stick within a certain range of length, a heavy thing within a certain rage of weight and shape.

These boundings give the hammer it’s context-specific purpose. You wouldn’t use a scarf to hammer a nail, and you wouldn’t use a hammer to stay warm in the winter²

When you understand what a hammer is and what a nail is, the hammer’s purpose becomes obvious. But if you didn’t understand what a hammer is, and didn’t understand what nails are, it would be very hard to determine the hammer’s purpose.

Unfortunately, humans are a bit more complex than hammers. But I’d argue that the principle is the same: from boundings arise an implied set of abilities, and when abilities meet the world, purpose is constructed. The hammer has first and foremost the ability to smash, like my wife’s boyfriend. Which leads to purpose becoming clear when we discover nails.

A nice middle ground is a humble bamboo flute. For it is stick like a hammer, yet it can sing like human.

New question: does a bamboo flute have purpose?

My intuition is yes. A bamboo’s purpose is to make beautiful music. Humans are only slightly more complicated than bamboo flutes; I know many people whose purpose is to make beautiful music. Like Bruno Mars. Though in Bruno’s case, his purpose is a little more complex—his purpose is to make music AND do cocaine AND be so so in debt to the Las Vegas casinos.

If a bamboo flute didn’t know it was a bamboo flute, it would start asking head ahh questions like “why am I here?” and “what is my purpose?”.

Some bamboo flutes ask “why am I here?” while others just play that funky music. It’s the same with humans. Everywhere around you you can find humans that have figured out what they are and skipped straight to playing that funky music. Others haven’t quite figured out what they are. Some like me are somewhere in the middle.

Another angle: human beings are just a beak on one of Darwin’s finches. The fat beaks crack nuts, the long beaks sip nectar.

Another angle: individual parts of a human are easy to see their purpose. The heart’s purpose is to pump blood, and the nose’s purpose is to sniff, and the mouth’s purpose is to shit talk Maryl in HR. If pretty much every discernable part of a human serves a purpose, why on earth wouldn’t the whole bitch serve one too??

A question that may come up right around now is: “okay, so my purpose is to play my beautiful music like an instrument. But what fucking song do I actually play wise guy?”

Every instrument has a timbre. A unique sound composition based on the materials and configuration the instrument is made of. The boundings create the ability to produce certain types of sound.

Certain types of sounds are more appropriate in certain contexts. An electric guitar is better suited to play rock music, while a bamboo flute is better suited to play an Indian raga.

This is where things become a little stochastic. Because certainly an electric guitar can be used to play an Indian raga. But 9 out of 10 times that may not “work” so to speak. On rare occasion it could be an absolute banger. And beautiful things can happen when an electric guitar doesn’t really know it’s an electric guitar, and it tries something, which happens to actually work very well.

Our best guess is that electric guitars are suited to rock music. But an electric guitar may look deep inside itself and learn that it was made to play Indian ragas.

So the purpose formula is: understand what you are + understand what’s around you.

The former is more important, since you are always around you, and you are always a variable in the situations you’re in.

I saw an instagram reel of an Indian dude throwing a series of massive propane tanks onto a truck in perfect rhythm and with perfect precision. His purpose, in that moment, was to yeet that propane with poise and grace.

This doesn’t mean that’s the only song he’s suited to sing, mind you. Just that he had everything necessary to nail that particular solo. Seeing an Indian man chuck propane like that is like seeing a hammer hit a nail. It’s just right.

Here’s why the “bounding on raw potentiality” idea is important:

Potentiality implies actualization/realization. The whole concept of “potential” does not exist without the concept of “realization”. Something “with potential” is something that has the ability to actualize in the future, aka become real & manifest in the world.

When a healthy baby is born with legs, those legs contain the potential to jump. They can’t jump yet, but they contain the potential. A newly-forged hammer has not yet hit a nail, but it will.

At birth, you by virtue of your boundings are assigned 100 billion little packets of potentiality. Concretely, Darius Clark was born with the potential to standing vertical jump 51 inches, higher than any recorded human before. And he did that in July 2025. He realized that potential. In jumping those 51 inches, he fulfilled a slice of his purpose. The purpose gifted to him by virtue of a combination of what he is and the context in which he found himself.

Instruments play many songs over the course of a lifetime. Some instruments might go on tour, and play the same song over and over again, refining and reimagining it as time goes on. Some instruments might just be for practice. Some will play in great concert halls, some will play in the hands of a homeless person begging for change. Darius Clark’s jump was just one of his songs. He can and will play many more.

You will play songs too. Actually, as time passes you’re forced to sing like it or not. The time is passing, and the sound is coming out. Whether you play a song you’re suited for or not is a matter of understanding what you are, and what’s around you (audience, setting, etc).

Odds are, if you comb the contents of your mind, you’ll find packets of potentiality that are waiting to be realized. Little nagging things that stick in there, sometimes over the course of years. The ones that stick around a long time and keep popping up are pointers to your purpose. For me, I haven’t been to the country my father was born in, and it’s always there in my mind. That’s a slice of potential that needs realizing. That’s a piece of my purpose.

Only you can determine what slices of potential are ringing out in your own head, heart, and belly. No one can do that for you.

~

I used to always take issue with the tale of the scorpion and the frog. If you haven’t heard it before, here’s an abridged version: scorpion asks frog for ride across river; frog says “stfu bihh you gon sting tf out me”; scorpion says “no shot”; frog says “bet, hop on king”; they start swimming across the river; scorpion stings the everloving fuck out of frog, drowning them both in the process.

The moral of the story is that it’s in the scorpion’s nature to sting; this was always going to happen. And I didn’t really get this story for a long time. I rejected it. I thought it closed the door to transformation, becoming, and ultimately transcendence. I was obsessed with potential at 16 because the adults around me told me I had it.

But having a nature does not actually negate transcending it; rather, it makes the transcendence possible in the first place. By defining something to go beyond. A butterfly can only emerge because the cocoon exists.

Nowadays I accept that things have a nature. A momentary nature in the here and now. A nature that can change over time, but one that nevertheless has certain proclivities, strengths, biases in the current situation. In this moment the nature is static. The scorpion is a scorpion. We can imagine the possibility where the scorpion goes to therapy before the frog-boat-ride, and is able to sit through his natural impulses and get to the other side of the river. But that would be a shit story.

In the situation where the scorpion is riding across the river on the frog’s back, it’s in the scorpion’s nature to sting; in the situation where there’s a nail sticking out of a board and a hammer right there, it’s in the hammer’s nature to POUND that bihh. Like how my wife’s boyfriend… nevermind.

So let’s take stock:

We have bits and pieces of potentiality from birth, due to our nature of being a bundle of boundings on Raw Potentiality. They can also arise over time as we live and develop. Each new skill or knowledge learned brings new potentialities. Realizing these potentialities is some sort of “purpose”, but in the natural and obvious way that a hammer’s purpose is to smash and a flute’s to sing. We meet each moment with a Nature which may or may not be appropriate to the context. An electric guitar in a rock band is aligned, while an electric guitar in a bathtub makes me feel a little tingly && also dead. Not aligned. Not where the electric guitar should be.

A lesson here is this: if you find yourself out of alignment with your surroundings, constantly clashing, then you might be an electric guitar in a bathtub. Purpose is determined through an internal feeling of “this is right for me”. But you gotta be honest with yourself. Many electric guitars find themselves in a bathtub and think “well at least it’s nice and warm here”. This is a cope.

I think that’s all I got to say about that. Purpose exists because you’re born with potential at birth. You come pre-built with things to realize, actualize, manifest. A personal “The Real Book” of jazz standards that you’re uniquely suited to singing.

It starts with figuring out what the heck instrument you are in the first place, then tuning it, learning it, becoming skilled with it, and finally performing the songs that were always waiting to be played.

How do you figure out what kind of instrument you are? You do all that shit you’ve heard before. You meditate, you do yoga or tai chi, you go to therapy and journal. You take long hikes in nature. You sit with yourself. You go into unique situations and pay attention to how you react, if it feels “right” or “wrong”. You live, and pay attention to your life as closely as possible.

Then when you start hearing those slices of potential, those pieces of sheet music, you play the damn tune best you can.

-Cuckfucius

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Oh shit I forgot something important. If you leave those potentialities be, those little whispers, they will rot. It’s not benign to leave them unresolved and unfulfilled. If you’re an electric guitar in a bathtub, you’re the only one who can realize your situation, and then act on it. No one is coming to save you from the bathtub. The longer you stay there, the more the beautiful curly maple of your neck will rot. You gotta get outta that bathtub, but it won’t happen if you don’t realize that you’re made of wood and water isn’t good for you. The second you realize it, do everything you can to get out the dang tub and into the hands of some monster-chugging suburban teen.

1. changed from Ascetics to Cultivators. More on this in a later essay. It’s a better label overall, more accurate.

2. unless of course, by virtue of the act of hammering, you keep yourself warm via an increase in bloodflow