Ancient question

[Spaced]

I'm all up for new trains of thought to ponder, and I know there are a wide swaithe of outlooks on this forum and I wonder...... what has life taught you that if you're asked, what is the meaning of life? How would you respond?

For me.......

The meaning of life is so that intelligent life may arise. What's the meaning of intelligent life? So the universe might appreciate itself.

Not for everyone. But it suits me. What's yours

Edit....... please, no 42's


-----Posted Added-----


Ooh, ooh I've got a better one........ The meaning of life is of course to hail probe........"Qualify that answer!" It is Probe that grants us information - and through that information we may appreciate that universe..

As a long time lurker I've been meaning to find my own of way of hailing the probe, for a while. But I imagine many are getting tired of "newbies" hailing? I shan't apologise though, I hail with pride.

 

[Scarecrow]

As life has evolved, the ability to spread genes very similar to one's own has been invariably selected for. Therefore, the purpose of life is to make more of your own kind of life. I believe we must do this responsibly, and instead of exceeding the carrying capacity of our planet, we have no choice but to colonize the rest of the universe eventually and thereby give ourselves more room to expand our species.

 

[Eagle]

The meaning of life is replication, expansion and growth. Put a bunch of self reprogrammable robots in a box and after several generations the only ones left are the programs that copied themselves.

Be fruitful and multiply!
~G

 

[Spaced]

I would say that's part of the bioligical definition of life. Not much of a personal philosiphy though. Breed and multiply. I agree it's something that should be done responsibly Although daytime chat shows have shown that currently it is not the trend.

 

[James.Denholm]

Personally, I think that there is no meaning of life, because there is no life. Think of it like this: My knowledge of computing tells me that there is, when computers are concerned, no random. This lead me to realise that there is no random, full stop.

Think of it this way: The roll of a dice in a casino is not random. The original position of the dice, the force, direction and angular force that the dice is thrown with, the aerodynamics and the weight of the dice, the position and speed of the air molecules that affect the dice, the individual threads of the mat that it hits, they don't affect the final result of the dice, but the define it. This lead me to realise that the firing of synapses in the human brain is not random, as they were defined by other synapes, and so on, and so fourth.

So, nothing is random, and there is no meaning to life, as there is no life, as there is no sentience. It just looks that way.

This, of course, is just my opinion. I won't force it upon you, as you need as much belief in the illusion of free choice as possible.

 

[jedidia]

This lead me to realise that there is no random, full stop.

wouldn't you have to revise this a bit according to quantum mechanics?

just asking, I only bothered with the matter very superficial. I red "The emperors new mind" by Penrose and it suggested something in those lines if I understood it correctly.
He definitaly proposed the theory that AI, no matter how complex, could never imitate life because of the lack of this random factor.

Anyways, it's a tough question. For me, of course, life revolves around the will of God. Not like a test-scenario, I don't like that view. when I say "Life" I mean the present as well as the afterlife. I'll be doing the will of God then, I try to do it now. Oh well... it's not very sofisticated, but I had other things bugging my mind currently, maybe I'll write more about it later.

 

[steph]

Life exists so that, in time, advanced life forms can develop, so that they can play Orbiter, and afterwards try to achieve what the Probe hardwired in their minds through Orbiter. Life also exists in order to create life, in order for that new life to play Orbiter too.

 

[James.Denholm]

Life exists so that, in time, advanced life forms can develop, so that they can play Orbiter, and afterwards try to achieve what the Probe hardwired in their minds through Orbiter. Life also exists in order to create life, in order for that new life to play Orbiter too.

Hail Probe!

wouldn't you have to revise this a bit according to quantum mechanics?

Well, I don't know much about that... damn. That shoots my theory down... *reads up about quantum mechanics*

 

[McWgogs]

The meaning of biological life is to replicate. That's the reason we are here. Now the philosophical meaning of life are human-made ideas and are absolutely relative. There's no true answer that works for everyone. Create your own meaning.

 

[Eagle]

The meaning of biological life is to replicate. That's the reason we are here. Now the philosophical meaning of life are human-made ideas and are absolutely relative. There's no true answer that works for everyone. Create your own meaning.

Ah, but perhaps ideas themselves replicate, grow and expand?
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_dennett_on_dangerous_memes.html

 

[McWgogs]

True, I've actually just read a book on memetics last month.
So creating your own meaning of life would be based only on the structure of your brain which has risen from biological evolution, and the ideas you acquired in the consequence of memetic evolution.

 

[Master of Blades]

I don't think there is any meaning of life, we are here because or parents produced us, and their parents produced them. And most of us will/already have produced offspring, which in turn most likely will produce their own offspring... and so on...

 

[Spaced]

Damn..... clicked the wrong button trying to delete a double post and wiped out everything I just typed in this post, my fault...... sorry am still trrying to get used to the forum.

Apologies if you read/replied and wonder why I deleted my post. Didn't mean to, I'll re-type it later, after dinner.

 

[willy88]

Purpose is man-made concept. It is completely inapplicable outside of a mortal perspective.

For example:

"Why do we eat?"
"So we wont starve."
"Why shouldn't we starve?"
"So we won't die."
"Why shouldn't we die?"
"Uhh, well, I don't know."

 

[steph]

The meaning of biological life is to replicate. That's the reason we are here.

Indeed, in behavior we tend to be very similar to these little things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Stargate)