Sum up the meaning of life in one sentence.

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...so that the universe to experience itself subjectively. See, I did it in a half a sentence.

It's whatever you decide it is or nothing at all.

The universe doesn't have a self anymore than a rock has a self.

The genetic meaning of life: Eat, grow, reproduce, die.
Thankfully, we have evolved to the point that we can have memetic meaning as well, and be happy and thoughtful as well.

Life is a rat maze, and there isn't always cheese.

this is the best i can come up with today:
(sorry you have to tolerate an ad before the song plays)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO5dcW0P75M[/youtube]

because we are here to make more of it.

Aren't you a self, and aren't you a part of the universe? Besides, the rock would have less meaning if there wasn't someone there to analyze it and appreciate it. Were a manifestation in which the universe can understand itself better. That's something very unique that human. self reflection really offers to this current state of reality. Yah, we might not be fully aware of everything in the universe, but were not even fully aware of everything that goes on in our own bodies or even our own heads. The fact that were aware of things to the extent we are puts us at the center. The fact that were, individually, proof to ourselves that something can be self aware at all should give us all the sense of meaning in the world.

We don't even know how consciousness even works. Yah, there's really no reason to assume that there's a kind of greater conscious process behind the laws of nature, but, then again, I kind of take it on faith that anyone else that isn't me is conscious, because the only reason I know I'm self aware is from personal experience. I think its stupid to say, without a doubt, that there's no other layers of consciousness outside our selves, especially when staunch materialists can't explain consciousness as a phenomenon.They really can't explain why were not just mechanical juggernauts and why there's an observer, in at least all human beings, that experiences the stream of interconnected emotional moments that we call life.

Last edited by JNathanK on 22 Nov 2010, 6:03 am, edited 2 times in total.

A spare tire is not an automobile, a tooth is not a crocodile, I am not the universe.

That's overly reductionist, and a car wouldn't function without a tire, and the crocodile wouldn't be whole and functional without the tooth. Were less like a peripheral organ and more like a collection of neurons. We give the universe more self reflection than it would otherwise have if we weren't here.

Unfortunately you suffer from the Roquefort syndrome. Humans and life itself are about as significant to the universe as the bacteria on a slice of Roquefort cheese in some refrigerator in Manchuria is significant to the eruption of a volcano on a planet that revolves on a star five million light years on the other side of the galaxy.

Yah, were insignificant in the sense that an asteroid could come by and wipe us out at any moment. Everything comes to an end at some point though, but also keep in mind that all ends give rise to new beginnings. The fact that human cultures, for 100,000 years were inspired by the milky way, by blades of grass (corn/agriculture), by everything the ecosystem has to offer, by the lunar and solar cycles, and by the vantage point we live in and all it has to offer the human imagination, puts us far above bacteria or fungi. The fact that there's something that can appreciate the universe, as opposed to nothing at all, is a very significant thing. When you're stuck in this reality as a human, it can be a very bumpy ride, and the significance of all this should compel people to stop fighting each other, to learn to love one another, and to make the journey through life one of companionship and expanded awareness, not war, pain, suffering, and death.

Last edited by JNathanK on 22 Nov 2010, 6:41 am, edited 4 times in total.

Then account for the failure of the Drake equation?

The Drake equation is speculative BS. You cannot pull actuality out of a theoretical magic hat.

"life" is a sentence

[quote="Sand"

The Drake equation is speculative BS. You cannot pull actuality out of a theoretical magic hat
.[/quote]

Bingo! most of the multiplicative terms of the (so-called) Drake equation are not measurable so the equation is meaningless.

ruveyn