Quote:
Originally Posted by amicus_curiae
As for legacies: That’s the reason that we reproduce, isn’t it? Like the dog whizzing on the fire hydrant, we have that innate need to make our mark (pun — my son’s name; my confirmation name).
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Reproduction is programmed behavior, designed to continue a species - it's not really a conscious decision to leave some kind of personal legacy. Yes, I know that a desire to extend the family line is a conscious thing, but there is also plenty of procreative activity that takes place, simply because the activity is pleasurable, something that's hardwired into our brains.
Quote:
Originally Posted by amicus_curiae
I love higher mathematics, but I do not understand them — I’m a child who can grasp only the very basics. As with all hard sciences.
No, if we know anything of nature it’s that it is always changing. That it is evolving and that the evolution is only conditioned by environment. There’s no design, no designer, no programming, no ticket-no laundry. No purpose outside of our needs, our basic and higher needs and desires.
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See above. Reproduction is
programmed. Genetics is
programming... with random corruption thrown in to add variety - thait last part is important, it's the element that prevents the initial code from going stale & being prone to destruction via unforeseen events. If this is a totally random, accidental state of affairs, then
it's a massively fortuitous one for life as we know it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by amicus_curiae
I’ll repeat it again: We only need think of Kinsey and his millions of gall wasps to appreciate our random novelty. We are prone to see patterns; we’re dim-witted in that. But — in higher mathematics (eleven dimensions?) — we theorise the wholly random nature of existence.
We aren’t Punch and Judy on strings (theory — I adore puns). There’s no puppeteer. I think that we have to embrace the comedy, the absurdity, of our existence rather than expecting an Ibsen drama (no matter how realistic — major domo pun).
That’s life.
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I see no reason why life, the universe and everything cannot be equally represented by the creative works of Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Henrik Ibsen, Friedrich Nietzsche, or
our own individual perceptions of what reality is - for they are
all products of that same system.
All deserve equal embrace...
