Introspection

"To answer the latter question, one possibility is that all conscious beings are the single journeys of neurotransmitters in the existential crisis of an omnipotent entity attempting introspection." "I really, really like that hypothesis, and I never found it better formulated than how you did it here."

If Adam Wheeler gave it some thought, or if someone were to prompt him with the right questions, he could put words around the fact that his existence doesn't bring him any satisfaction. He would discover, on introspection, that he's nowhere close, actually, to "happy", and that there is something vast and significant missing from his life. But he doesn't give it any thought. There's a void between him and those questions.