What is the point of life?

[Birdjaguar]

Our ancient reptilian brain does seem to have a purpose: to keep itself alive to reproduce. It works very hard to achieve that. That of course is not a universal purpose, but it is one we can actually point to.

 

[Joij21]

I think if we take your definition for granted than no property is ever unimportant, which in turn means everything is important, which in turn kind of defies the very definition of "important" as we use it in a colloquial context.

Because we as humans define the what is and what isn't important. It might all be relative in reality, but human experience isn't relative. We naturally put a spin on everything.

For instance I can say your not important but I'am. If the majority of people say I'm right, then I'm right. Meaning is based on what the majority believes is true.

 

[Gorbles]

I can vibe with this re-definition of important, I feel it may actually benefit our discussion hugely, precisely because it is not as anthropocentric.

One curiosity though: Is there anything that, depending on its concentration, is utterly unimportant? Because I honestly don't think so. Doesn't matter if it's temperature, gravity, rainfall, population sizes, doesn't anything become important under the correct circumstances, and aren't those circumstances mostly arbitrary?

Aren't all three "stages" of oxygen equally important - High concentration meaning certain death, medium being some kind of life-enabling equilibrium, the last meaning the complete absence of oxygen, again certain death? I think if we take your definition for granted than no property is ever unimportant, which in turn means everything is important, which in turn kind of defies the very definition of "important" as we use it in a colloquial context.

Maybe if we take a route of: "A property is important to the degree to which it effects other properties in its own or other systems".

In that case "important" would mean a similiar thing as to what "significant" means in science/statistics. I'm not sure this preserves the original meaning of the word important, but it seems like a good working definition. If you think about it, a property can theoretically affect many other properties, but in absolutely marginal ways. In that case surely we would not call that property important. So what counts is both the amount of other properties it affects and the degree to which it affects them.

To be clear, I agree on the stages of oxygen, as described, as important in turn. And I agree that it somewhat undermines colloquial usage, but I don't think it's that straightforward.

I'd argue that colloquially, outside of basic egotism (which happens! And affects science to boot), the relativity of what I was getting at is implicit. We take it for granted, perhaps. But to take another example, in a different setting, a headmaster or headmistress is (ignoring school boards for the second because I don't have time for that kind of tangent lol) is the de facto most "important" authority figure, and thus often the most important figure, in the school. But that doesn't mean they're important in of themselves, or that they matter outside that context. They're both important and not.

What I was pushing back on was the seeming use of the "not" to counter the existing importance. One doesn't override the other, most of the time at least, in my opinion.

 

[Kyriakos]

The current human civ isn't going anywhere, and it will collapse sooner or later (overpopulation and natural disasters will help with that). I am fairly certain that a future human civ will have significantly different traits, and not look that much like today's.
Machines (robots) will be a boost, in that they will replace what in some ancient civs were the slaves, who (regardless of their own plight) did allow for more freedom for the actual citizens. In some of the court orations written by Lysias (those were always memorized and delivered by the defendant), you can read that even the poorest athenian still had one slave.
Given I don't think that robots will be sentient, I think they will be our great help, in a far better future.

 

[Henri Christophe]

The life is combustion, our flame is our soul.

 

[gozpel]

I was going to throw in a new line of Why is life.
But then, you guys have all the answers to everything, but why thinking we are the center of universe?

We are an ant stack wrecking ourselves into havoc. The BIG question is still WHY?

We can be very philosophical about it or quite not give a damn, we are us, what is the else?

I'm still humming on this, not as great as you peeps, but I'm still humming, and I wonder why?

 

[Kyriakos]

I was going to throw in a new line of Why is life.
But then, you guys have all the answers to everything, but why thinking we are the center of universe?

We are an ant stack wrecking ourselves into havoc. The BIG question is still WHY?

We can be very philosophical about it or quite not give a damn, we are us, what is the else?

I'm still humming on this, not as great as you peeps, but I'm still humming, and I wonder why?

FYI I am actually from Alpha Centauri.

 

[gozpel]

"FYI I am actually from Alpha Centauri."

I believe you Kyriakos, so what do see there? Anything to answer the question why?

I don't think Alpha Centauri has more answers than we do.

 

[Kyriakos]

 

[Kyriakos]

"FYI I am actually from Alpha Centauri."

I believe you Kyriakos, so what do see there? Anything to answer the question why?

I don't think Alpha Centauri has more answers than we do.

It seems that the vast majority of people only wish to either keep things as they are (if things are regarded as good) or change them to something bearable. From this follows that virtually no one is into examining what lies below; since this kind of examination has the very real prospect of forcing more dangers along with any benefits which ultimately are only of a mental kind.
The above can also be presented in far fewer words, if we just say that "most people don't care about thinking".

If mankind ever actually becomes better, it won't look like what we have now. Currently the best virtue is one you don't earn: mere luck. This too can be said with fewer words: when the subject is lowly, any rise is strictly down to chance.