The purpose of the universe

Did anyone ever think that maybe the universe is a machine designed to produce companions for the one we think of as "God"? Maybe He was lonely...

i think the 'Universe' is the living body of a co-evolving consciousness; or put more simply: Alive. there is no 'matter vs spirit' to me. and we are part of that consciousness (ie: matter + spirit).

I often think God was bored when he decided to create the world. Though I don't see God as someone who gets lonely for some reason.

I don't recall who it was but I recall reading where some scientist or philosopher, when asked if he believed in god, replied: "I have no need of that hypothesis."

I'm not sure that the universe has a purpose - at least not one that we're yet in a position to comprehend. In the meantime, part of me suspects that Douglas Adams might have been on the right hiking trail, with the pan-dimensional white mice and Deep Thought's contribution to the ultimate question of life, the universe & everything...

I seriously don't know. But honestly I don't think the universe as a whole has some consciousness and it definitely doesn't care about us. I never "ask the universe" for anything as it can't give me anything. I like stargazing and I've been seriously into astronomy since I was very young. "Atlas of the solar system" was very first book I remember from age 3 or 4. I wanted to become an. Astronaut or work for NASA my entire childhood. I don't want that anymore.
Sorry everyone for being negative, I just needed to vent.

I doubt anything except what is alive has consciousness... because if the universe is somehow alive (so scary when I think about it, whole mass of everything, is alive and breathing... my God) it'd be not very nice to think about it..... at least for me.

Universe definitely isn't alive, an infinite EVERYTHING shouldn't be alive. Unless of course there is another universe...

Although I am no physicist (I cannot handle high school physics) I doubt universe is alive, or at least should be alive. Again this is a friendly suggestion and by no means criticism by Stephen Hawking's successor. God may exist, he may not exist, that's not for science to know at least yet.

I have had the same thought. Either God was lonely or bored

But so much pain and suffering for everyone else who is alive isn't it....

Parts of it are, whatever "alive" means. I think what some of us wonder is if more of that is developing, and if that has any further meaning.

Something to think about, anyway.

Absolutely accidentally, I watched an episode of Physics Girl today, where she talks about certain interesting cosmological problems. How the universe is elegantly "made perfect". No new age babble, don't worry, just science!

Being living is defined by three major characteristics

- Metabolism
- Ability to respond to stimulus, and (I study biology and I find whole consciousness different from just the ability to respond to stimulus, consciousness varies from organism to organism)

- Homeostasis
I doubt the universe has metabolic features.

I think the universe was created as an experiment. We are like fish in a bowl being watched by some entity. Something is out there watching us, I believe. I just don't know from where are they watching.

Not the ability to reproduce?

In single celled organisms, reproduction is synonym with growth. Also organisms like mule are sterile. So reproduction is not a definite characteristic of living organisms, like two elements combing can give rise to a whole new compound but the elements are non-living.

Also as I re-read the notes to answer your question, consciousness and cellular organization seem to be the only defining characteristics of living organisms. Non-living things can also have "metabolism" in them, i.e. chemical reactions in them. In vitro fertilization comes to my mind, also related to reproduction. Non-living organisms also have the property of a growth in a sense, as the material can both accumulate outside as well inside.

I really doubt that universe is alive. But then it's my personal opinion...

All living organisms are conscious?

That's the term our textbook used.

Edit : I originally said that "the ability to respond to stimulus" seems to be a part of consciousness, and it seems to be accurate. I think humans are the most conscious, but psychology isn't experimental physics so we still are going to have definitions rewritten in the coming decades.

Whilst I have no evidence to regard the universe as I understand it, as sentient/conscious, I think an argument can be made to regard it as something able to respond to stimulus - at least in terms of it being a functioning system, that is capable of applying forces & capable of atrophying into a non-functioning inert system. Earth, it's inhabitants, solar system, other galaxies & everything else in the universe all appear to be parts of this functioning system (and for all we know the universe may make up some part of an even larger functioning system).

Interesting, if thoroughly unanswerable topic - any of the suggestions in this thread could conceivably turn out to be accurate - we simply don't know at this point.

Of course that can happen, that all of us are just tiny quarks for a supreme ecosystem, but that's not life as we know it. All we know of life is that life is not possible without cellular organization. I would find an entirely different cellular organization (planets, for example) for the biggest ecosystem quite strange. But then again I do not hold a PhD.

I wonder, if the microorganisms living in us were to have intellect as much as we currently have as Homo sapiens sapiens, would they think we are the universe they live in? For each individual person.

Yeah, I was going to use gut microbes as a potential example of systems within systems.

At some point in the not so far away future we are likely to cross a rubicon, when we manage to create an artificial intelligence that is capable of becoming sentient - then it could be a case of cellular lifeforms welcoming their new robotic overlords!

i have heard the stars 'sing', 30 yrs before the radio telescope revealed that, indeed, the stars are emitting radio waves. who can prove they are not singing to each other, as whales do?

i have experienced other dimensions, OBE's and NDE's among others. the universe seemed conscious to me. so, in lieu of any evidence to the contrary, and in view of all the evidence of my own experiences, i choose to believe and act as if the universe is conscious.

the real question is: are YOU conscious, and how much?

That's incredibly interesting! But isn't knowing that the universe is conscious scary? This is a genuine question. I believe in experiences like yours although I'd never want to experience them. I'd be too scared!

Could you tell us more about what you've learned?

The universe and everything in it earth for example is living consciousness aware of itself and everything,so of course the universe is alive!

I doubt they will be overlords but I eagerly wait for Fallout-like robots who will be my friends. If we treat robots well, they wouldn't try to outsmart us... we can program them like that I think.

Also, even if they do, they will have hard time outsmarting us how to screw things up.