Why do we exist?
- LuckyR
- Moderator
- Posts: 7990
- Joined: January 18th, 2015, 1:16 am
Re: Why do we exist?
-
- New Trial Member
- Posts: 17
- Joined: January 6th, 2018, 1:44 am
Re: Why do we exist?
Bebelle wrote: ↑November 24th, 2017, 6:52 pm Have you ever felt that everything you do and will do is meaningless? That no matter how great you are at something you will never be truly important, and that's when you are good at something, because most of the time you are just average. So why should we live if our existence has no importance, if it is not going to make any difference in the world? No big changes, you are just one more person like many others.
1.) I hypothesize that the purpose of human life is reasonably to construct Artificial General Intelligence.
2.) Reference-A: ResearchGate: Why is life's purpose reasonably to build AGI/ASI?
3.) The reference above relates to purpose in the realm of objectivity/science (teleonomy) rather than subjective things like the teleological argument.
4.) Reference A was mentioned, because many tend to wrongly think that purpose is merely subjective.
-
- Posts: 107
- Joined: October 11th, 2013, 10:48 am
Re: Why do we exist?
Are you serious??jaypeza wrote: ↑March 11th, 2018, 8:54 pm This video talks about the real purpose in life, i think this video truly is what we are all looking for. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDoLyN2imsY&t=3s
- Vivek7
- New Trial Member
- Posts: 14
- Joined: August 3rd, 2017, 4:07 am
Re: Why do we exist?
-
- Posts: 658
- Joined: September 10th, 2017, 11:57 am
Re: Why do we exist?
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15154
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Why do we exist?
Was the purpose of the common ape ancestor to evolve into humans, chimps, bonobos, orang-utans and gorillas? Was the purpose of the common ancestor of monkeys and apes to produce it's various subsequent lines? Is the purpose of a child to become frail and elderly? Was the purpose of blue-green algae to flood the atmosphere with (then toxic) oxygen, making complex life possible?ProgrammingGodJordan wrote: ↑March 13th, 2018, 11:01 pmBebelle wrote: ↑November 24th, 2017, 6:52 pm Have you ever felt that everything you do and will do is meaningless? That no matter how great you are at something you will never be truly important, and that's when you are good at something, because most of the time you are just average. So why should we live if our existence has no importance, if it is not going to make any difference in the world? No big changes, you are just one more person like many others.
1.) I hypothesize that the purpose of human life is reasonably to construct Artificial General Intelligence.
2.) Reference-A: ResearchGate: Why is life's purpose reasonably to build AGI/ASI?
3.) The reference above relates to purpose in the realm of objectivity/science (teleonomy) rather than subjective things like the teleological argument.
These look like possibilities and probabilities playing out to me - ditto, humans producing AI. That's just what's happening now. If humans are, as often expected, superseded by AI then that is not necessarily a human purpose but human consequence. The only way we would have genuine reason is if planets reproduce via AI "packets of information" sending "Earth stuff" to other worlds. I personally think that's very possible, but it's also very speculative :)
-
- Posts: 658
- Joined: September 10th, 2017, 11:57 am
Re: Why do we exist?
-
- Posts: 658
- Joined: September 10th, 2017, 11:57 am
Re: Why do we exist?
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15154
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Why do we exist?
Indeed. They are known as corporations. They are inching towards the kind of domination of humans that humans imposed upon other species. What goes around, comes around, it seems.
So we humans appear to be in the process of being superseded. As things stand, politicians no longer represent people, but corporations. The rationalisation is that corporations represent the interests of multiple people in what they hope is a utilitarian approach. However, corporations have their own particular interests that are independent of its humans - members and staff. When those interests no longer coincide the corporation soon removes the "dead wood". It seems more accurate to say that corporations provisionally, temporarily and often unreliably represent the interests of multiple people, and with automation that human interest is reduced to shareholders.
Once corporations have advanced AI CEOs at the helm (which will at some point be deemed more rational and reliable by shareholders) then I expect we little individual humans may appreciate just how outclassed we are - or we may continue to complain about multiple simultaneous problematic scenarios without considering the common cause and connection that is hiding in plain sight.
So far the biosphere's traumatic changes have worked out astonishingly well in the long term, so one hopes this extinction event will yield similarly wondrous things, even if it may be terrible for humans on a personal level.
-
- Posts: 658
- Joined: September 10th, 2017, 11:57 am
Re: Why do we exist?
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15154
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Why do we exist?
The complexity within both cells and corporations is entirely applied to the processes involved in consuming and growing rather than existential considerations or ethics. That won't come until governments fall, and without any "police" corporations will increasingly need to form alliances to survive and working out ethical rules of engagement within their posses.
-
- Posts: 658
- Joined: September 10th, 2017, 11:57 am
Re: Why do we exist?
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15154
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Why do we exist?
Our mitochondria had that "choice" foisted up them; basically, the ones that were not captured in cells died out. Now only captive mitochondria exist. I figure that I'm rather like a mitochondrion already, mostly pottering around my self contained house and garden (cell), the power source for the communications equipment within the cell that had been produced by the "larger organism".
Outdoors environments are becoming noisier, more crowded and polluted. Meanwhile, communications systems, home entertainment systems and home deliveries are improving all the time so the motivation to go outside will ever become less. Thus, we will be sustained by the "larger organism" within our self-contained and safe "cells", with ever more sophisticated connections to the hubs of power.
-
- Posts: 658
- Joined: September 10th, 2017, 11:57 am
Re: Why do we exist?
- Sy Borg
- Site Admin
- Posts: 15154
- Joined: December 16th, 2013, 9:05 pm
Re: Why do we exist?
Much of the accumulated human wisdom and artistry is still present, but increasingly present in organisations rather than individuals. We have for some time been effectively storing our intelligence in central repositories and operating ever more like dumb terminals. Fascinating stuff. All very short term, of course. If progress was charted, the devolution of culture would be seen as a tiny downwards blip in an exponentially rising curve.
People are thrown by the fact that progress tends to concentrate rather than be distributed evenly in societies. So it's perfectly possible for a society to become ever more advanced and progress rapidly while the masses become ever more limited and specialised. More like ants.
2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
2023 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023