Sam Harris

Salt Creek - 23 December 2007 02:02 AM

This coming from the guy who used to talk about invented meanings being the food for the survival instinct.

“Sure, life has no meaning, but other people, not me, are better off inventing one.”

Salt Creek - 23 December 2007 02:02 AM

You crack me up, ASD.

My life has meaning after all!

Salt Creek - 23 December 2007 02:02 AM

If life has no meaning to you, or at least one which does not bear your seal of approval, it’s no skin off anyone’s back. Watch out you don’t get punched in the nose. The meaning of life is not getting punched in the nose every time you walk down the block for a pack of cigarettes. The meaning of life is to make lots of little copies of your genome and see that they all get the right schooling.

Well, if you’re going down that road, I’d say it’s not about making copies of your genome, it’s about getting laid.  The genome copies are just accidental byproducts.

Salt Creek - 23 December 2007 02:02 AM

Party on dude, and be excellent to yourself. Don’t sever your femoral artery on your way through the plate glass window that is so clean you can’t see it unless you look for small refractions.

Nice metaphor.  You definitely have a way with words.

Antisocialdarwinist - 23 December 2007 02:32 AM

Well, if you’re going down that road, I’d say it’s not about making copies of your genome, it’s about getting laid.  The genome copies are just accidental byproducts.

Boy, are you in for a big surprise, and in just a few decades, too. The memories can be spectacular, until you start to lose your memory.

Antisocialdarwinist - 23 December 2007 02:32 AM

“Sure, life has no meaning, but other people, not me, are better off inventing one.”

Why would you say this? You say it’s meaningful for people to think they are better off than they might otherwise be. Or do you tell them they’re better off? Compared to what?

You really don’t understand why I disagree. You cannot know that they are better off. Even they cannot know it. What I am against is the idea of trying to be better off. Even suggesting the idea is abhorrent to me. I think we should all collapse back into the primeval slime whence we came, ASAP.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Furthermore if there is other life out there, and other intelligent life we ought to find it. As its beautifully expressed in Carl Sagan’s contact, said by an alien entity to the human explorer “We find that the only thing that makes the vastness and the emptiness bearable, is each other”.
If there are others out there, we ought to find them and make the loneliness easier to bear.
Last but not least, maybe advanced civilizations are a common evolution, but we are the first. In which case our purpose is also to set the example for those who will come after us, for those species who will haul themselves out into space to find the remnants of our civilization, millions of years after we are gone.

By advanced civilization, do you mean the development of X-Boxes, Blackberries and WMD’s? It seems to me our lonliness is hardly unbearable, or that we’re even lonely at all since we have so many activities in which to engage ourselves; blowing each other apart, watching millions of children’s deaths from starvation and disease, for instance. Once our self-imposed alienation from each other is conquered, we can endeavor to hop on the next shuttle to the stars. As things stand now, we might have to hole-up on the nearest space station while we try to ‘re-terra form’ this planet. And, we needn’t be concerned for their lonliness. Upon their visit, you’ll be more likely to hear, “Beam me up Scotty, there’s no intelligent life down here.”

The innate drive of the individual/species to fulfill the natural life cycle inperpetuum is essential for life, therefore of primary importance. Sacrifice, inherently based on a value system, may attempt to contribute to that purpose. For me, HOPE holds the most universal meaning of life. And the quote also underscores the importance of resposibility, I think.

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