Life is awesome - argumentum ad populum

[Erinome]

Hi,

I think pessimism is the rational perceptive to have.

Good for you. You have an opinion. It doesn't mean it's true, it means it's your philosophy. In reality, it is not the only rational perception to have. Don't think I didn't notice you went on to claim that cancer can be cured by video games, and rambled ignorantly about the actual power of mind. If you really thought pessimism is the rational perception, then why would you expect people to even want to be cured of cancer? That sort of thing requires optimism. I'm left unclear about your ability to rationalize anything now.

Throughout the history of this planet, only a small percentage of life has been doing this contemplating the universe thing, and having high-minded conversations about how beautiful life is and how wonderful their experiences have been. But life isn't anything like this, it's a replicating DNA molecule that has been reproducing and consuming itself for approximately 4 billion years.

If that was all life was, we wouldn't be able to do things like "this contemplating the universe thing." Life is learning, contemplating, feeling, suffering, joy, and without these things, we'd be rocks.

Does it have a purpose? No, it was just an accident of biology, which perpetuated all these different manifestations of life.

Possibly it has no meaning in the broad sense. If I didn't love my children, or find it to be meaningful to be their mother, I would have just let them starve to death or something. If everyone held this meaningless position, then evolution by natural selection would have ceased the reproduction of our DNA. Children would not survive past infancy if the the beings whom spawned them found taking care of them meaningless. It is instilled in us to find meaning in things, for without it the continuation of our species would not occur.

Take Sea Turtles, for example.

http://www.conserveturtles.org/seaturtle...e=behavior

If they don't make it to the ocean quickly, many hatchlings will die of dehydration in the sun or be caught by predators like birds and crabs. Once in the water, they typically swim several miles off shore, where they are caught in currents and seaweed that may carry them for years before returning to nearshore waters. There are many obstacles for hatchlings in the open ocean. Sharks, big fish and circling birds all eat baby turtles, and they die after accidentally eating tar balls and plastic garbage. The obstacles are so numerous for baby turtles that only about one in 1,000 survives to adulthood.

Although the mother finds the meaning in protecting them while they're in eggs, she abandons them when they're born, almost as if she finds no meaning in protecting them now. She's reproduced, passed on her DNA, and her job is done. Yeah, they're an endangered species.

And what are we? We are simply puppets animated by the non-benign chemistry that has been pulling our strings for hundreds of thousands of years.

Speak for yourself.

You think you have a self, a solitary unity self with a fixed identity? Well, sorry to break it to you, but you don't. Your subjective experiences are just the end result of electrochemical activity in your brain.

Interesting claim. Evidence?

Our species has become so deluded from reality that we can't even see the only thing which is meaningful - sentience - that which we take for granted. None of this material has any real value, it's all just perceptual, the value is inside ourselves. The conscious welfare of all sentient beings is what matters.

This is not pessimism. This is altruism. Get your isms straight before running off at the mouth.

We still create sentient beings that are capable of experiencing pain and suffering for our own edification. We haven't demonstrated any capacity to solve this hate problem, we think we can somehow take control of nature when we are the very part of the problem we seek to solve.

Wait.. didn't you state before that we just meaninglessly replicate our DNA? Now we do it for our own edification? So there's meaning, at least. Think things through. Please. Do you even know the root of hate? Does a spider wrap a fly up in it's own junk, and then suck it's innards out because he hates the fly, or because that's how the fly survives? Not all of us think we can take control of nature, but you seem to passionately wish you could... especially strange for a self-proclaimed "pessimist".

We will not be able to control the technology that we are currently busy designing and experimenting with. We hope that this will lead humanity to inevitable moral progress. It won't.

Who is "We", and why do you continue to use all-encompassing language that insinuates that you have some sort of omniscient insight to the opinions on technology from every person in the world? Some people don't think that at all, so now you're just mindlessly assuming, and making irrational claims.

You can continue to fill your head with daydreaming and nonsensical wishful, hopeful thinking and talk about how beautiful and joyous your DNA ride is, or you can recognise that it isn't a ride at all, just a stupid molecule creating biological experiments.

pessimistic thinking is just as much a "seat" on the "DNA ride" as wishful/hopeful thinking. If you believe that it isn't, please explain how and why you came to believe this.

Ask yourself this question - Which would I prefer?

Meaningless and amoral universe with a cycle of unnecessary pain, suffering and death inflicted on the present generation by the generation preceding it due to insane and deluded animals mistakenly believing that they are bestowing something precious - sentience - that needs to be perpetuated at any costs.

Meaningless and amoral universe with no unecessary pain, suffering and death inflicted on future generations by the present generation.

Pretty tough decision to make isn't it?

Well, no, not at all. Once again this is your opinion on the meaning of life, or rather, lack thereof. Pain and suffering are a part of life. What you're suggesting is that we stop reproducing in order to stop inflicting anymore unnecessary pain on beings that didn't ask to exist. It's illogical. It just doesn't work that way.

You have a right to your opinion, but no right to impose it as a supreme ideal upon others.

Anyway, just my thoughts. We only know what we know with the information, beliefs and priorities we have at any given moment in time. No need to hate, just appreciate what we all have in common.

Thanks.

Yes, and as you age you will come to realize that the more you know, the more you know you don't know.