the meaning of life

[teflon]

OK let's get this straight, I dont care what you think the purpose of life is, likewise I don't want to hear any hippy shit about doing unto others. I want to know what you think the MEANING of life is.

How do you define life and how do you differentiate it from inanimaticity.
So any replies saying 'be nice to people' or 'do your best' are utterly worthless.

You have to think about it properly. What does LIFE mean?
I have a pretty good theory myself and would be willing to share if I get a few reasonable arguments from you lot.

Forget the REASON FOR life, the PURPOSE OF life, I want the MEANING, or if it makes it easier, the DEFINITION of life.

Prove me right by showing that at least some of you are as smart as I think you are. What's the difference between something which is alive and something which isn't?

[Detomah]

I don't for one moment pretend to myself that I or any other human is so self important as to believe that our existance and life has any more meaning than any other living entity on this planet.

So with that...

The meaning of life in my mind is that there is actually no meaning of life, the thought that there is, is nothing more than a human thought, provoked by the instinctive fear of being insignificant and virtually worthless creatures. As purpose is a simple in-built instinctive instruction for us to pro-create, everything else is a thought process developed by man as man has developed from one generation to the next.

Life is nothing more than a simple journey from A to B via C, which goes like so:

A = Birth
B = Death
C = Decisions and actions taken en-route from A to B.

Everything else about humans and human thought is basically either man made, man developed, man invented or thought fabricated.

The way I see it, humans are nothing more than a parasite attached to our host, the planet Earth and humans are the worst kind of parasite there is, as we are doing more damage to our host than virtually any other parasite we know of.

I could imagine in my thoughts seeing a number of different simple ways to look at this sort of thing though:

1. The meaning of life is to ensure the continuity of the species.
2. The meaning of life is to learn and pass forward knowledge and learning through each generation of the species.
3. The meaning of life is to live.

To me, the simple fact is, is that no matter which way I try to look at it, there is no meaning. Humans exist as a result of evolution and some stupidly lucky chain of events and conditions on the surface of the planet earth. If the events and conditions had been any other way, life could just as easily been extinguished within the first few moments, or even never have happened at all. Humans have reached the top of the food chain due to evolution, there is absolutely no guarentee at all to ensure we will stay there though (except for the fact aht what ever does knock us off the top is almost certainly going to be smaller than humans, as we've wiped out anything bigger than us that has been seen as a threat) and humans certainly don't have any kind of divine right to exist or any of that crap. We are all here by luck and that luck could run out any any time by any number of events.

As someone once said: From the top, the only way is down.

[teflon]

That's pretty well thought out and admirably fatalistic, but it still sort of misunderstands the original question as to what defines life. What's the diference between an elephant and a rock? Is there even any?
Or plants, are they alive and is cutting the grass any less immoral than gassing tens of thousands of Kurds?
Excuse the metaphors but I think they make my point.

I'm sure someone will get to it if we keep the discussion going.

[Detomah]

Originally Posted by teflon

That's pretty well thought out and admirably fatalistic, but it still sort of misunderstands the original question as to what defines life. What's the diference between an elephant and a rock? Is there even any?
Or plants, are they alive and is cutting the grass any less immoral than gassing tens of thousands of Kurds?
Excuse the metaphors but I think they make my point.

I'm sure someone will get to it if we keep the discussion going.

I know the angle you are wanting to go down with the discussion, but I couldn't give you the kind of well represented, balanced answer your actually after, because I honestly don't think or believe there is one, to me life has no meaning, we simply exist.

I believe, the only thing making you seek an answer to any question and anyone providing an answer to any question, is all down to basic brain development through evolution and knowledge sharing through gaining the ability to provide historical records, via writing. I believe that it was pure luck that we evolved to being the correct shape to evolve our way up the food chain and once at the top it's been through destruction and greed that we've wiped out virtually every other living thing that could have possibly posed any kind of threat.

Morality is a human designed trait, the only reason anyone feels bad about any action taken, is simply because someone at some point has said "that is wrong and bad".

You mention rock and elephant, well not that I claim to know all the elements and chemical makeup of things, but isn't it actually the case that they both share some of the exact same bits, just the same as humans and pretty much every single thing on the planet. Why a rock is not alive and a elephant is alive is fairly simple and clear for anyone to know through science and doesn't need debating in my opinion as that has nothing to do with life having meaning.

I know this is still not what your looking for, but as said, I don't actually see there being any meaning to life, or life having any meaning other than we are born as a result of pro-creating (commonly known as drunken lust these days), live until our physical being is either destroyed or naturally wears out, then we die, decompose and simply fold back into the ongoing recycle process. There is no soul, there is no greater being, no god, no devil, no great purpose or end goal, no fundamental purpose for us to be alive or anything like that.

[Eraserhead]

The only difference between self organizing matter or life as we call it, and any other matter is that the former was just in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the right place at the right time, depending on your outlook).

[draganess]

we all know the meaning of life is 42

sorry I couldn't resist that one.

I think the meaning of life would be different for everyone.

[emma roids]

`the meaning of life` is a great monty python film

also `life` is the name of the game and i want to play the game with you.

sorry, best i can do (im sure that will come as no surprise)

[Allanon]

I'd say you were perhaps angling towards sentience. In which case I would say life, or being alive is awareness of one's self and the innate desire to preserve one's happiness and existence.

That and something involving kittens.

[Harv]

Intelligence and self awareness

That also adds that artificial intelligence would constitute life as well although you could argue that although artificial intelligence meets part of the criteria just because something shows intelligence does not mean that it is self aware.

But then if you take the route that self awareness can only be known by a certain state of intelligence then many lifeforms would not constitute having a life. Maybe the fact that single cell organisms are not intelligent enough to show self awareness means they are not actually living a life but just exist?

So therefore the meaning of life only exists if there is enough intelligence and self awareness to be able to quantify your own existence?

[meow]

the meaning of life is simply what we make of it and we affect other peoples lives too, but our lives too are also so very much affected by other people.

beyond that it is very abstract, and no two people wil likely have exactly the same view.

[Xeno]

The meaning of Life, or the Cause of Life? Its difficult to understand totally what kind of angle you are after. If you want a strict definition of life, theres far too many grey areas to give a succint answer.

Mammal; Fish and the like, are obviously Alive but what about a Tree, a Flower - it doesn't breathe, yet it grows? So where do you draw the line? If it has a pulse is it alive? or if a series of chemical exchanges take place resulting in growth?

Somebody else put it at a good angle also:

Originally Posted by harv

the meaning of life only exists if there is enough intelligence and self awareness to be able to quantify your own existence

So forget breathing, forget chemical changes: But self awareness and self thought. If you are aware that you yourself exist then life has meaning. (But that rules plants out, right?).

Personally, theres several stages to life and I have to agree with Detomah, there is no meaning to it. You can make your own meaning, as the saying goes "Life is what you make of it" but that doesn't solve the question explicitly, we are born and for the first 3-6 years of our life, we have no idea about so many things to even consider making our own meaning of life, other than maybe at that age its to get hold of the cuddliest teddy, or to make sure you get that Thomas the Tank engine set next christmas, which would make the Meaning of Life, relative, to many, many different variables. Be it age, gender, type and so on.

In regards to Detomah's comment

Originally Posted by Detomah

but isn't it actually the case that they both share some of the exact same bits

This is indeed true, 'Carbon based lifeforms' that, I believe is the key ingredient. Anything on this planet, that moves, grows to some degree is Carbon Based. ( I'm not 100% sure on that fact, no doubt there will be exceptions to this rule ). So maybe, thats what makes life, life. Or a combination of being Carbon Based with the right Chemical exchanges, the right oth