(July 7, 2017 at 12:31 pm)Khemikal Wrote: Personally, I think that life that -doesn't- possess consciousness, or possess relatively diminished consciousness got the cruel end of the evolutionary stick. Ever notice that how poorly something goes between two creatures very often toes the line with which of them has greater mental faculties?
There's a reason fish keep getting stuck on hooks. A reason that the fastest deer keep getting shot.
Perhaps, had they the ability to more thoroughly contemplate their own mortality (I'm pretty sure every sentient creature is familiar with the fear of death) they wouldn't end up being the victim of it with such alarming frequency. In the meanwhile (as in, between now and whenever we all invariably bite that bullet), while our mental faculties do cause us anguish I feel that this feature (not a bug) of the system is vastly outweighed by the amount of joy the same apparatus brings us. The idea of it's loss is, after all, what's causing you grief in this case. If life and death were all doom and gloom we'd find ourselves rushing towards it headlong - but we don't.
I read about a theory in psychology once called, "terror management theory." It more or less suggests that everything we, as conscious creatures, do in our lives, we do for the purpose of distracting ourselves from the knowledge of our own mortality. The reason we have careers, kids, play competitive sports, entertain, win awards, volunteer, ect.; it's all about making ourselves feel important and in control, so that we don't lose our minds and simply commit suicide in the face of inevitable oblivion. What a bizarre evolutionary advantage that requires we spend every waking moment of our existence trying not to think about it!
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
Wiser words were never spoken.
