Knowing him and doing his will is the meaning of life. Without him, life is a walking shadow. The Babel Syndrome Cain was cut off from God by his sin. If he had accepted his punishment, the continuing sense of rootlessness may have served as a reminder to him and his progeny to return to God and renounce the spirit of self-direction. They tried to fill their empty lives with the work of their own hands.
Mankind is the same today.
Even Christians are tempted by the Babel syndrome. When God withdraws his blessing upon us because of active sin in our lives or through a passive failure to implement his revealed will, we are apt to try to fill the ensuing emptiness with the work of our own hands. When a husband and wife have a fight, he surfs the Internet for two hours and she cleans out a closet, both filling their time with distracting activity rather than dealing with the relationship in obedience to God's will. Parents sense they need God's work in themselves and their children, but they fill their schedule with sports and shopping and this and that, hoping somehow that all this fretting will add meaning to their lives. Churches, sensing God has withdrawn his blessing, start a building project or add another program to the already harried schedule of the people.