Comments: Never Ending Math Equation

The following are unedited selections from fifteen years of comments about the meaning of the Modest Mouse song "Never Ending Math Equation."

Animals eat, have sex and sometimes play. Plants grow, spread, and get eaten. We're just here, feeling nothing, confused. We're the only things that don't really know where to go. We're the weird in the universe.
—weezilla on June 18, 2015

theres a movie called Pi, the cover of the movie is all black and just has the greek symbol pi on the cover. but in the movie theres if the never ending math equation is figured, all existence ends and the universe will collapse on itself
—alter913 on February 03, 2005

This song is about physics.
Get really high and think about it.
—britina on December 24, 2007

its about thinking really hard about the universe and life and humans and emotions and how in the end of this long thought you reach this profound I DONT KNOW.
its just a long beautiful explanation of i dont know how or why.
—silentbamboo on October 23, 2004

it shows me how small over time on the planet is and how little mankind has to do with the entire course of the universe.
—thegreenrhino on January 09, 2006

It's interesting to me that so many people have interpreted this song so differently. There do seem to be a few common themes, though - futility, transcendence, internal struggling - and I think this is exactly the purpose of the song. It would be very easy for MM to say, "We keep getting older and that's a never-ending math equation," but it's much harder to get so many people to _feel_ that.
This is my favorite MM song; I think it's a beautiful expression of futility. The idea of a 'never-ending math equation' itself is a bit futile - what good is a math equation for its own sake? If Mr. Brock is suggesting that life, or meaning, or the universe is reducible to something as arbitrary and unfeeling as a math equation, what is the point of playing it out?
The lyrics systematically refute any suggestion of life's higher meaning: Brock says he hasn't grown or learned anything ("I'm the same...as i was when i was 6 years old"); he suggests that day-to-day life is pointless ("...they look so alone, do they really feel anything?"); he refuses to believe God is anything more than another arbitrary word ("Oh my God...Oh my Cat.")
My favorite lyric of all time is: "We're on the tip of [creation's] tongue and it is saying, 'We ain't sure where you stand - you ain't machines, and you ain't land.'" How bizarre is our position as human beings! We glorify the natural world as an idyllic paradise, but we can't admit that 'the plants and the animals eat each other'! We systematize and sterilize, compartmentalize, and generally mechanize our lives - we glorify the machine world - but we are terrified of losing our 'humanity', that wildness that keeps us linked to that bestial, primal essence that is nature.
In any case, the beautiful thing about MM is they're able to communicate their meaning without necessarily articulating it. I doubt anyone can listen to this song and not _feel_ it.
—irishwulf on September 19, 2005

what if I were to create an equation that models everything in the universe
existance [sic] can be explained by
that nothing actually exists and it's all just a mathematical idea.
—radcliff on March 18, 2006

I'm not going to try and debate all the meaning in it or anything, but it just feels right. The song. And I can't explain why.
—adamanteve on January 23, 2006

The whole song seems to be about the struggle with going on with life knowing it's pretty pointless in the end. Trying to find meaning to keep you going.
—Relapser on January 11, 2006

we are what we are and everything is what it is.
—TheOneWithMe on May 09, 2005

you are what you are, everything is what it is
—TheOneWithMe on May 09, 2005

The never ending math equation is the the "unified field theory", or the theory of everything. Einstein was among the first to try and figure it out, but never did. No one has, and we may never do it. What they're trying to do is to find one equation that unifies the four fundamental forces of nature: strong nuclear, weak nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational. These are the only four forces in the universe, everything else is based on them. So if you find an equation that links them all together, you have the equation that EVERYTHING works on..."The universe works on a math equation". However, some believe it doesn't exist..."never even ever really ends in the end”
—youlikestuff on June 10, 2003

ITS ABOUT TRIPPING UR FUCKING HEAD OFF ON ACID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
—treekid000 on June 07, 2004

the universe follows a law of infinity, creating itself and expanding itself.
—Meaninglessness on August 25, 2011

I think this is about that overwhelming feeling of meaninglessness in the face of life,
—smallwonderrobot on April 09, 2005

I get total hopelessness from this song. Especially summed up when I moved cities for a better life, repeated the same stupid mistakes and realised I was always running away from myself, the one person I couldn't and it'd all go in circles, the Neverending Maths Equation.
—bucjo on July 18, 2007

this song makes me think of the movie "pi" because of the whole universe a math equation, and that its infinity, and unsolvable and whatnot
—karmapaymentplan on August 08, 2007

In all of this, we begin to think of our little dramas as so important and, consequently, we take ourselves so seriously, and meanwhile the life cycle continues—things are born and die ad infinitum, and even when the life cycle ends on Earth, the rest of the universe goes on. In the scheme of infinite, one man's role is infinitely small, a realization which serves as a double edged sword: on the one hand, our drama can hardly be considered significant in the broader scheme of reality, but on the same token our lives are equally insignificant, yet we live on, often in suffering. And for what?
A key theme in the song then is loneliness—like the tiny lights, each alone in darkness from the broader perspective, each of us is alone in our struggle to find meaning. For all of the rules we learn to live by, for all of our science and all of our religion, we each stand alone in the search for meaning. Isaac's father could raise him, teach him how to speak and shave and pay taxes, but when Isaac has learned the art of survival and feels ready to understand his place in infinite, all his father can tell him is that we all live and eventually die and as for the rest, you're on your own.
—nostalgicBadger on November 10, 2007

this song just makes so much sense but at the same time none at all, he is just as unsure about reality and existence now than when he was 6. Math equations should explain more but because the universe is infinite the equation explaining it would never end, we exist somewhere on an infinite spiral of creation and don't know where or why.
—xxolocobassistxx on December 03, 2007

song meanings is so stupid sometimes. sorry i'm such a bitch.
—Hey_there on August 31, 2008

"There is no remainder in the mathematics of infinity”
—suckmyjaggon on August 07, 2009

For a lot of the song he seems to be talking from God's point of view. If something, like God, is an actual infinite, then every part of the whole is the same value as the whole because every part of infinity is infinite.
… how it must be so dull being constant and an actual infinite - unchanging. He's saying how God must want to change but all there is is him, he can become nothing else. He will always be constant.
I think it's kind of cool how he keeps saying "Oh my God" etc, as for God to say that wouldn't be blasphemy. Aristotle said that God must constantly contemplate himself as this would keep him eternally happy as he is perfect. So he just calls out to himself, because to him, that's all there is.
—SarahDylan on June 12, 2010

One could say we may be the organisms that broke free from infinity itself.)
if you look at the nature of things, God would be equal to us just like another organism.
—Zuken on July 01, 2010

Either way people will fight to defend there rights but at the end no one will win because we will all die while the world just continues to spin.
—iam134iam on August 13, 2010

i dont think this is a place to debate what exactly what the song, or any song for that matter, is talking about ...
it can sometimes makes you feel a little bit crazy to go back in forth between yourself …
if you understand what im trying to say, then mad props to you
im just kinda writing shit and at this point im not gonna go back and see if it makes sense.
—blank11 on February 12, 2011

ya know what...i love readin these little lyrical blog pages an watchin alla you bicker...'specially about a question that only one person can really answer...
-the man the lyrics were credited to...
an maybe THATS what the never ending math equation is..
-a joke-
this discussions been goin on since 2002...
-hasnt ended yet-
—xgames180 on July 21, 2007