Eh, I thought sentient meant self-aware. And blah to all that stuff about dolphins recognising themselves in mirrors. What I meant was basically humans only, as the only species on Earth to worry about their origins (and yes I DO KNOW this for a fact, of course ;) :D :D )

Also, I KNEW someone would attack based on the distinction between meaning and purpose etc. I tried to address both.

and damn, I've come to the conclusion that Ilander is more annoying than me!

Come ON guys! We have known the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything for some time now. It's 42.

The meaning of life for me lately comes in the form of a few NWA classics. I've been listening to some old school albums again, to which I'm sure you can relate, Vask.

The meaning of life is whatever you decide to do with it. You make up your own meaning, it shouldn't be determined by everyone else's standards. Or...

life
n. pl. lives (lvz)

The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism.

[img]tongue.gif[/img]

meaning of life?

it's conjecture, but fwiw i have an opinion. [img]graemlins/twocents.gif[/img]

i believe there is much around us that we can't see nor comprehend, and i see that as our particular limitation.

as a species, our perception as dubious at best. we certainly don't have very long memories and we tend to see ourselves as the pinnacle of life in today's universe. imo, it's all prolly due to limited conciousness, pre-conceived perceptions and brief life spans.

anyway...
i read a math book in one of my philosophy classes back in college and i can never remember its' name. it was about a species who lived in 2 dimensions. when one of their friends turned *sideways* they no longer existed and were mourned as dead. when confronted with the possibility of a third dimension, they boggled. they had no way of coping with a concept of such enormity. except to kill the messenger. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

i don't know that we will ever understand what's around us and how, or even if, we affect it. simply because there's so much we can't see.

V***V

I was gonna say that...but that's the answer, it the question that I'm not sure about... ;)

I think there is no meaning to life, we are just a biological mishap stuck on a remote desert planet far away from the center of the universe... we have managed to evolve to a point were we acctually believe there is some point to our existance. Which is great, and if we manage to find a meaning and lead a happy life from it then thats great...

By the way my ultimate goal these days and what gives my life meaning is making a certain someone else happy... :D

so are you saying that there are little beings from another planet that could look identical to us in every way? i bet there would be, or how we come to exist. I believe in all the theories and sommehow they manage to fit together. I also think the astroid belt was a planet but had a big bif with mars over earth or something like that, and mars one, taking over earth as our own and wiping out the dinosaurs. The meteor crashed in the earth from that planet also help extinguish all pre historic life forms. I am rabbiting on so do correct me if im wrong.

If not only Universe, but also mass is infinite then there would be someone in a completely identical situation typing these very same words... infinately far away.

I am aware of the ban on religion, yet I offer this little piece of humour. While borderline I hope it remains within the frames of good conduct.

"When the Lord created the world and people to live in it - an enterprise which, according to modern science, took a very long time - I could well imagine that He reasoned with Himself as follows: 'If I make everything predictable, these human beings, whom I have endowed with pretty good brains, will undoubtedly learn to predict everything, and they will thereupon have no motive to do anything at all, because they will recognize that the future is totally determined and cannot be influenced by any human action. On the other hand, if I make everything unpredictable, they will gradually discover that there is no rational basis for any decision whatsoever and, as in the first case, they will thereupon have no motive to do anything at all. Neither scheme would make sense. I must therefore create a mixture of the two. Let some things be predictable and let others be unpredictable. They will then, amongst many other things, have the very important task of finding out which is which."
E.F. Schumacher "Small is beautiful"

Sorry, but one of my favorite quotes. Mostly in response to vasselle.