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[Hippoman]

I'm not a philosopher but bear with me.

Just finished a huge conversation with Outcast Orange. went on for 4 hours I believe.
Either way, the end of it was the Meaning of life. He said he Survives to be Happy.
I say I survive to survive.

Its basic logic too. As he put it, we're all machines. Programmed to survive.

I am programmed to find survival for my Species. He wants to find Happiness for himself.
If any of you are programmers, imagine it like this:

Survival is the grand scheme
each case is a way to find survival.
so an example of a case is eat food.
But to eat food I must get food.
To get food I must look for food.
To look for food I must move.
To move I must have the ability.

And so on. There are Billions or trillions of different cases for finding survival.
One of them includes getting Outcast to not kill him self by living in a box being happy for the rest of his life. How ever long that may be.

If he is living in a box, he is not surviving or forwarding survival of the species. So he must either be convinced or killed, or some other way to get him to forward his species's survival.

All in all, I want to hear all you your debates about the meaning of life.
But we can't have it getting out of hand. There is no right or wrong answer.
Only other people who are programmed differently.

[SolarShado]

The desire to propagate (keep the species alive) is hard-wired into our genes, barring mental instability, I believe it's still the basic driving force behind the actions of all living creatures (human or otherwise, except maybe extra-terrestrials, but let's not get off-topic). Basically, Freud was right.
(Disclaimer: I'm not psychologist and have only a vague idea of what Freud believed/taught/whatever)

Beyond basic survival, everything else is "gravy." Happiness is desirable because it tends to imply health, and hence attracts other happy/healthy individuals, leading to a broad pool of breeding partners with desirable traits (intelligence, resistance to disease, etc.).

I could probably ramble on, but it's late and translating ideas into coherent sentences is getting hard. (Spelling's slipping too... thank Science for spell check)

(I'm a mildly cynical atheist typing at almost 4am... take that as you will. I tend to get more cynical when I get tired.)

[smigenboger]

Ripped from an old blog of mine

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

'I do not physically exist'
when the hand that is relative to the left of the
vision I experience is pinched, I recieve a sensation
directly caused from it, yet physically, I am not a
hand. The hand itself doesn't hurt. The hand is not any
more self-aware than the air surrounding it. The brain
associated with the hand receives a sensation. It too
is not self-aware, it only receives information and
through a system of logic controllers, it commits to a
reaction.
The same could be said in every type of sensual
activity.
If this body is dismantled, I will not receive any more
sensual information from it. I can assume this means Iwill not receive any more sensual information
whatsoever. What does this mean? Will I continue to be
self-aware even if there is no input, or no thought
processing capabilities?
I am an entity that has the ability to receive sensual
information and in times control the material of the
body I am associated with, yet physically I am not that
body.
I find it unsettling that I've been going through life
so long without even thinking about it
I have received sensual information that there are
systems of material that interact in the same way that
mine does, and it can be assumed BUT NOT FULLY PROVEN
that there are entities like me that bear witness to
their actions.

[Jude]

There's no meaning other than what we impute to the facts we have gathered. Science doesn't change that either; it doesn't uncover meaning, just information. The only thing it's done to meaning is made it more clear that there isn't any besides what we make up ourselves.

[Dwarf]

I think life is utterly and completely pointless, which means not that you can't enjoy it of course.

[SolarShado]

I think life is utterly and completely pointless, which means not that you can't enjoy it of course.

This, more or less. Life does have a point: the creation of more life. We still boil down to self-replicating chemical chains, a lucky coincidence.

But, yes, that certainly does not prevent you from having fun Just try not to violate society's rules in the process

[Cheeetar]

There is no 'meaning' to life, but the purpose for which most organisms were created was to ensure the survival of genes. You can care or choose not to.

[Retro]

If you die happy and surrounded by people who care about you and vice versa, I'd call that a win.

[Hungry]

Unfortunetly, life has no purpose, not even to make and sustain life for that is a want and desire of life not a purpose.

To have purpose something must be required that only that thing can fulfill and anywhere I've looked, including religion, there is no purpose in life.

As I see it life is just a predictable event of either random chance or divine intent, with no intelligent purpose, but directed towards survival for some unseen or nonexistant requirement.

If you look at it in basics we as human beings are an outcome of an odd drive of simple organisms to eat, replicate, and to fight off death to eat and replicate more.

[Cheeetar]

To have purpose something must be required that only that thing can fulfill and anywhere I've looked, including religion, there is no purpose in life.

Sorry, I don't really understand your definition of purpose.

[Hungry]

It's difficult to define purpose without using the words meaning, reason, goal, or purpose.

[REQUIRED] + [MEETS_REQUIRED] = purpose

much as a key has purpose in opening a lock, but life doesnt have the right requirement.

[(insert meaning of life here)] + [LIFE] = purpose

[Cheeetar]

?

My definition of purpose is that if something is created or designed to do a specific thing, that is the purpose of it. The key was created to open a door, so the purpose of the key is to open the door. I still don't fully understand your definition of purpose.

[Hungry]

And by your definition of purpose something created or designed (which is basicly created in a diferent word) to do a specific thing or cause a specific event has purpose in doing that intended thing or causing that event.

My definition of purpose is extended to humans and life in the same way if we were indeed created for some purpose or to cause some event, would we not do it by design and with intelligent mind realize it as our purpose.

And you religious persons if you even dare to say man was created to worship god(s), I have to say... that purpose is totally flawed, because if a being such as gods wanted beings to worship it free will wouldnt be something it would give to these worshipers, because that would be like giving your car keys the will to deside if they want to start your car.

Also to cover you godless peoples, if we are driven by random chance and survival curves... life as a purpose to life is still no purpose.

My philosophy and morality tells me you either make yourself a purpose or all you do is wasted.

[Cheeetar]

And by your definition of purpose something created or designed (which is basicly created in a diferent word) to do a specific thing or cause a specific event has purpose in doing that intended thing or causing that event.

My definition of purpose is extended to humans and life in the same way if we were indeed created for some purpose or to cause some event, would we not do it by design and with intelligent mind realize it as our purpose.

A key has the purpose of opening a door, but can get lost and not open the door. Also, the key does not know its purpose is to open the door.
So, if human beings had a purpose, we wouldn't necessarily always succeed in it, or even realise it as our purpose.


Also: The ways you resemble Armok increase.

My philosophy and morality

I am have extensive knowledge of philosophy and a strong morality.

[Hungry]

Damn you cheeetar your going to get me going about singular specific human purpose arnt you...(one key > one lock)

I fucking hate talking about destiny, because thats where it has to go to cover that section of conversation.

Ok, taking into account lost "keys" the majority of doors still open dont they? And when you find a key you dont say "whats this?" you normaly say "whats this go to?" and thus brings individual identity into question...

If you are a "key" made to cause an event you either cause that event or another "key" comes into being to cause that event, but still leaves your purpose fulfilled but you dont know it, unless it is your purpose to not fulfill a purpose for another to fulfill...I'm just going to veer off from that ugly thing called destiny before this post becomes a monster.

If human beings cant realise our collective purpose...maybe there isnt one...at least not one clearly visible.

Sorry to sound so down and cynical, but I just do.