What have the romans ever done for us!!!
What is the point of life?
- Thread starter gozpel
- Start date
Gori the Grey
The Poster
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
- Messages
- 13,354
Even a Civ game has 5-6 different ways to win.
If humanity and life has a purpose it is mostly hidden. But, people have the tools and are clever enough to create purpose and add meaning to what often appears pointless. We have both reason and passion to put our experience to use in living in communities (that we seem to like to do). Certainly we have seen trends in how humans have applied those tools to make sense of our world and lives.
Some folks like big answers that are all encompassing and find comfort in being part of that kind of crowd. Others find satisfaction in a personal bubble of knowing what is true for them. And then there is everything in between. What I think is important is that you understand that THE answer is likely beyond us and we have to settle for one that shields us from despair and enables us to move though life with some comfort. You have all the tools you need. Rest in reason and move with passion.
Someone should make a fake video game review about life.
Tremendous graphics.
Too grindy.
Lack of victory conditions makes it too sandboxy.
Great open-worldedness
Pain feature makes the player vulnerable to griefing
Monthly fee to play is too high
Tremendous graphics.
Too grindy.
Lack of victory conditions makes it too sandboxy.
Great open-worldedness
Pain feature makes the player vulnerable to griefing
Monthly fee to play is too high
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
The point of life appears to be reproduction. That is the only thing all life seems to have in common, whether you look at a zebra, human, virus, amoeba, or mushroom.
That seems to make sense, as all life we are aware of came from 1 ancestor which somehow started reproducing those however many billions of years ago. How did the first RNA come into being? Nobody knows (I don't think), but it started reproducing, and.. here we are, so many different forms in existence now. And each and every life form still has that biological drive to continue reproducing (except maybe Pandas).
So there you have it, question answered!
Of course our species happens to have evolved the ability to reason and be self-aware, so we can easily supplant our biological "point of life" with whatever we want. For a lot of people that means founding a family, passing on the family name, perhaps a career, a successful business, or what have you..
I don't think self-awareness was meant to be part of the program. Sometimes the bug takes over. Particularly if it comes to the point that the alternative is total termination.
Animals are dumb. They don't seem to mind much even if their own die (sometimes they will also kill and even eat their own, including family members). The bug, however, is of a different type, and the ultimate end of any parasite is to be no longer in need of the host organism.
Animals are dumb. They don't seem to mind much even if their own die (sometimes they will also kill and even eat their own, including family members). The bug, however, is of a different type, and the ultimate end of any parasite is to be no longer in need of the host organism.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
There was never any program, you can't really talk about what "should have been" and what "shouldn't have been".
One can see even "there was never a program" as part of the program - which, in that case, was no program - or perhaps more aptly a line in the code stating that there is no code, yet still run as code.
I am of the view that consciousness and then self-awareness weren't calculated developments (as in some kind of 'survival advancement'). Even if they were, however, one has to note that they weren't factored as to what they would lead to, namely (among other things of this nature) humans being the only being on earth which can off itself.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
No evolutionary advances (teeth, wings, eyes, large barins, etc.) were ever "calculated developments", so that is a very safe bet.
Even so, there's a difference between "calculated formation of feet" and "calculated formation of means of movement". Likewise, thinking is a category, not a particular interface for it
If I could believe in the development of really sentient machines, I would view them as a dream of the bug.
Unfortunately, I think the machines won't be aware of anything, much like a billion dominoes.
amadeus
Bishop of Bio-Dome
If I knew, what would I do differently with that knowledge?
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Even so, there's a difference between "calculated formation of feet" and "calculated formation of means of movement". Likewise, thinking is a category, not a particular interface for it
The point is that nothing about evolution is "calculated", right? The reasons why we have large brains and are able to reason are ones of chance and natural selection, not planning or calculated effort. Same with all other evolutionary advancements like eyes, ears, legs, etc.
It would seem that for very general categories, this cannot be true, because why would feet or wings or any other such limb be developed if there wasn't a "sense" of movement being an issue?
Even amoebas move. That itself doesn't seem likely to have just happened on its own. "Ability" to "sense" that movement is a thing, would seem to be a prerequisite to form any type of means to move, no?
Complexity seems to enhance survivability. After each mass extinction, complex life re emerges. Complexity is not needed for reproduction (there are lots of amoebas and bugs around) but it does seem that it bring something new to the table each time it rises from less complex life forms. At the least I think we can say that evolution seems to push life towards complexity.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Because mutations that lead to an advantage in movement would have been "selected for" by virtue of those organisms having a better chance of passing on their genes. It is not a case of anyone or anything attempting to create a creature that can walk better.
Evolution doesn't work like this: "Hey there's a problem! We need better feets".
It works more like: "Hey a slightly mutated leg! Good luck with that!"
If you ever want to feel even more depressed, take a look at a map that covers more or less the known universe:
And be aware that the individual yellow/purple pixels in the above, that form the purple, orange, and yellow areas, are superclusters, that each may have a hundred million billion (100,000,000,000,000,000) suns. And we as a race are working on getting to the next planet over inside the same solar system, and dream of getting to the nearest handful of suns.
We as a race are no more important to the (known) universe than bacteria on a single grain of sand on a beach is to the entirety of the Earth.
That aside, what choice do we have but to keep going?
And be aware that the individual yellow/purple pixels in the above, that form the purple, orange, and yellow areas, are superclusters, that each may have a hundred million billion (100,000,000,000,000,000) suns. And we as a race are working on getting to the next planet over inside the same solar system, and dream of getting to the nearest handful of suns.
We as a race are no more important to the (known) universe than bacteria on a single grain of sand on a beach is to the entirety of the Earth.
That aside, what choice do we have but to keep going?
Gori the Grey
The Poster
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
- Messages
- 13,354
Or in other words:
Just re-member that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, a Sun, that is the source of all our power.
The Sun, and you and me, and all the stars that you can see, are moving at a million miles a day
In the outer-spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, of the Galaxy we call "The Milky Way".
Our Galaxy itself contains a hundred-billion stars, it's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light years thick, but out by us, it's just 3,000 light years wide.
We're 30,000 light years from Galactic Central Point, we go round every 200 million years,
And our Galaxy is only one of millions of billions in the amazing and expanding universe!
Small Instrumental
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding in all of the directions it can whizz,
As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know, 12 million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is,
So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
Just re-member that you're standing on a planet that's evolving, revolving at 900 miles an hour.
It's orbiting at 19 miles a second, so it's reckoned, a Sun, that is the source of all our power.
The Sun, and you and me, and all the stars that you can see, are moving at a million miles a day
In the outer-spiral arm, at 40,000 miles an hour, of the Galaxy we call "The Milky Way".
Our Galaxy itself contains a hundred-billion stars, it's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, 16,000 light years thick, but out by us, it's just 3,000 light years wide.
We're 30,000 light years from Galactic Central Point, we go round every 200 million years,
And our Galaxy is only one of millions of billions in the amazing and expanding universe!
Small Instrumental
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding in all of the directions it can whizz,
As fast as it can go, the speed of light, you know, 12 million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is,
So remember when you're feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!
Came to post this.
