[Closed] Whats your outlook on life...why are we here ?

Ah. You're right Dez. Apologies.

Life - It's just killing time then.

I'm the only one here; the rest of you are just constructs of my imagination

slowoldman - Member

As Mr Whoppit says, we exist for the replication of genetic material as does all other life.

What drives the needs for replication?

🙄

What drives the needs for replication?

Like I said

It's genetic

What drives the needs for replication?

What happens to anything that doesn't seek to replicate itself?

Replication is what genetic material DOES. That IS life. Our bodies are simply one vessel for that process to occur in.

Life - It's just killing time then.

The more you explain it the less enticing your outlook is becoming.

The endless pain of existence in the knowledge that nothing we as individuals, as nations or as species has any impacts whatsoever on a cold and uncaring universe ...time to die

[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/ive-never-been-so-confused-in-my-whole-life#post-5954003 ]I've found it![/url]

My outlook is to be content while being considerate to others around me.
I wouldn't profess to know why we're here, only a fool would do that, but if i had to guess, it would be to drink and be merry. 😀

I'm here to live in short.

The longer answer to learn, enlighten and to aspire to something more.

Procreation? Leave that to the farm 🙂

Iain M Banks raises the idea of Sublimation which is interesting ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sublimed) as a process where a species/culture moves on to a higher plane when it feels it has completed/achieved everything it can.

IHN - Member
Those conditions were there by chance (if we're assuming the absence of a 'design'), so yeah, we are.

Deterministic universe?

Isn't that only if there are underlying rules governing quantum effects?

I'm just here for the show, enjoying it while it lasts.

We're here for a good time, not a long time. So help both yourself, and equally everyone else, to make the most of the experience. And if you can't manage that, then at least try to do no/the-least harm.

Is any of this helping, unfitgeezer?

How do you view the idea that there's actually [i]no meaning[/i], to existence?

(Any commentary vileness notwithstanding).

I shouldn't be reading this thread

I'm in turmoil for the past few months asking this very same question

What drives the needs for replication?
Like I said

It's genetic

Nope, because Prions are capable of replication and evolution without carrying any genetic material!

Is any of this helping, unfitgeezer?

I imagine he couldn't give a monkeys, and is busy preparing his next hot button topic.

I understand that matter and energy cannot be destroyed or created therefore we must go somewhere right?

Not sure you've understood that correctly. 'We' are a specific assembly of atoms. If you put all your carbon in one box, all your oxygen in a gas cylinder and your hydrogen in another, you would no longer be you.

The conditions in the universe at any point in time are due to the conditions existing immediately prior to that. Which is why it's plausible to construct a history of the universe all the way back to the big bang

Nope. Chaos, and more fundamentally, quantum mechanics.

Faith, Hope and Charity.

Charity lived at #34 and was my favourite 😉

Simples.

i ride.

therefore i am.

Each and every one of us is damn lucky to be here. Putting some numbers behind it helps:

[URL= http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s632/NorthernPaul/WhatAreTheOdds_4ebb1b0343634_zps2af2fdf8.pn g" target="_blank">http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s632/NorthernPaul/WhatAreTheOdds_4ebb1b0343634_zps2af2fdf8.pn g"/> [/IMG][/URL]

For me - live well, live peacefully, ride lots, do as you would be done by and remember, generally, what goes around comes around. Nach.

Not sure you've understood that correctly. 'We' are a specific assembly of atoms. If you put all your carbon in one box, all your oxygen in a gas cylinder and your hydrogen in another, you would no longer be you.

Physically, yes. But are we assuming that our consciousness is purely limited to our bodies? If so, is that a safe assumption to make?

Actually, that makes a bit more of an interesting question. Rather than "Why are we here?" How about, "Why do we have the ability to ask the question "Why are we here?"". I mean there seems to be a lot of life around that is quite good at living without being burdened with sentience/self awareness*, so what's the point of it?

* I also fully appreciate this is a very superior and possibly incorrect attitude, but then humankind tends to be that way. Hopefully, Dear Reader, you get the gist of the post and won't get hung up on my own hang ups.

But are we assuming that our consciousness is purely limited to our bodies?

I am, yes - why wouldn't it be?

Why do we have the ability to ask the question "Why are we here?

Easy - we've evolved the ability to think critically, and be aware of ourselves. That produces all this existential bollocks 🙂 The difference between humans and other animals is that we evolved both large brains and hands to manipulate tools with - because we lived in a marginal environment where better tool use and intelligent thinking gave a survival advantage.

Peyote - Member
Physically, yes. But are we assuming that our consciousness is purely limited to our bodies? If so, is that a safe assumption to make?

Jamie - Member

Is any of this helping, unfitgeezer?

I imagine he couldn't give a monkeys, and is busy preparing his next hot button topic.

Bit rude matey seen as you have no idea of the anxiety I suffer with...

Go and deface someones picture with your fancy photoshop skills 😉

I am, yes - why wouldn't it be?

Really? seems to be quite a big assumption to make. But I suppose without evidence to the contrary... ...nah, the mystery of it all is what makes it interesting!

Couldn't critical thought and/or self awareness arise without the existential bollocks? It would give a lot more time for doing stuff if we weren't burdened with the whole meaning of life questions.

Ah - so, what are you anxious about, geezer?

If we were fighting for survival and looking out for predators in a basic hunter gatherer family troupe like our ancestors we wouldn't have time for any pontificating bollox about life and the universe. .just can we eat this..and will that eat us...life was much simpler when dodging dinosaurs

If creationists are to be believed. That is..I quite like their mentlist ideology so god riding a t rex seems like a good reason for existing to me

geezer? Has he gone?

Bit rude matey seen as you have no idea of the anxiety I suffer with...

In which case, I apologise.

Really? seems to be quite a big assumption to make.

I don't think so. We've found loads of evidence for emotions and feelings as chemical activity in our brain, including feelings of belongong to something big. They can easily be reproduced with drugs.

Seems a fairly straightforward one to me.

Imagine if you programmed a computer to be sentient. Would it have a soul? Well that's debatable.

But let's consider something simpler and more feasible. Imagine you program a computer to model a living organism. You give it a number which is, say hunger. Your program gives it food and this number goes down, and then goes up gradually over time. You can ask it if it's hungry with a user interface, and if the hunger number is above a thresohld it says 'yes'. So is it really hungry, or is it just reporing a number? Is there a difference?

Imagine you program it now to have a series of emotions. You would have it store numbers for happiness, sadness, love, hate, anger, fear, security, say. Your user interface then lets you ask it how it's feeling. Let's also write some code and create a hardware device that senses when another computer is near and increases the love number, and a rule that increases the happiness number. If the other computer goes away again the love number goes down, the happiness number goes down and the sadness number goes through the roof. You can then ask it how its feeling and it says 'sad and lovelorn'.

Is that really any different to how we work? Does the computer then have a soul or a heart?

If we were fighting for survival and looking out for predators in a basic hunter gatherer family troupe like our ancestors we wouldn't have time for any pontificating bollox about life and the universe.

Evidence suggests that they did just that. As long as we've been sad to see our loved ones die, we've been trying to explain it.

Does the computer then have a soul or a heart?

Good question, probably at some point they do. When they start thinking about their own existence outside of their immediate environment, wants and needs.

RE: Chemicals and emotions, yes I've seen some of the research on these, serotonin etc. But are these (emotions) an indicator of consciousness? Are they even linked? A psychopath/sociopath devoid of 'normal' feelings still exhibits signs of consciousness, labotomy victims - similar. Emotions and consciousness/sentience are two seperate things in my book.

I have no idea what's going on but I refuse to waste valuable time ruminating on the meaning on life.

I will hopefully just not be disappointed in my performance on earth by thr time I die.

Mr Woppit - Member

Ah - so, what are you anxious about, geezer?

Health (getting cancer etc), mortality my wife's mortality, my children... loosing a parent as a child has caused most of this sh 1 tty anxiety...and some days I wish it would just go and f off

so some days I question what the heck its all about

But are these (emotions) an indicator of consciousness? Are they even linked?

Consciousness doesn't really have a definition, does it?

Is it the same as sentience?

so some days I question what the heck its all about

It's about what you want it to be about. There's no external plan.

As for the anxiety, that's just cortisol, another chemical floating about in your brain. If you understand that you can start learn to ignore it, and it'll probably go away 🙂

Consciousness doesn't really have a definition, does it?

I sense that you wish there was something more than the obvious, to make you feel that it's all more "worthwhile"?

In answer to the idea that there is no "meaning" to existence, a physicist and atheist (who's name I cannot now recall - it's too long ago) said "Yes, life is meaningless, but so what? I can tell you I'm looking forward to a damn good dinner tonight!"

Life is good. Being alive is challenging, interesting and occasionally pleasurable, especially if you ride bikes, eh?

So there's no "meaning". So what?

([i]Any view in the above that can be construed as "vile" is the responsibility of the author only[/i]).

That's the best thing you've ever written on STW Woppit.

OK, so as far as we are aware, we are composed of the same matter that makes up the universe, albeit with a sentient consciousness; now, given that the scientific community is beginning to shed light on the universe being a holographic projection:

http://www.nature.com/news/simulations-back-up-theory-that-universe-is-a-hologram-1.14328

and there is countless human phenomena such as the placebo effect, intuition etc that are beyond scientific explanation, along with mentions of spiritual energy dating back millenia, such as qi, the soul or indeed the jedi force:

Or could it be, by modern devices freeing us of much of the physical toil of yesteryear and giving rise to global consciousness through communication, we are bringing about a new era of next level spirituality which could heal previous flaws in our nature?

Flip knows, but if you bang one out in a sperm bank, then have children you don't know about and have no interaction with, have you fulfilled your primary programming?

and there is countless human phenomena such as the placebo effect, intuition etc that are beyond scientific explanation

Those things are not beyond scientific explanation at all.

I'm here because my parents weren't satisfied with my older brother 😀

In the meantime, make the best of the opportunities on offer while you can, and just because you can...