EV batteries. Well this is interesting..yikes

darthed1981

Kurtis said:

The other question is does it matter? 

In the grand scheme human existence is basically zilch. 

Well... yes... it matters.  I want my children to grow up and have happy lives, and their children afterwards, and so on.

Ultimately that's all that matters, great schemes and destiny are for Gods, if there is such a thing.

Kurtis

darthed1981 said:

Kurtis said:

The other question is does it matter? 

In the grand scheme human existence is basically zilch. 

Well... yes... it matters.  I want my children to grow up and have happy lives, and their children afterwards, and so on.

Ultimately that's all that matters, great schemes and destiny are for Gods, if there is such a thing.

That's my point. The universe doesn't care what you want. 

darthed1981

Kurtis said:

darthed1981 said:

Kurtis said:

The other question is does it matter? 

In the grand scheme human existence is basically zilch. 

Well... yes... it matters.  I want my children to grow up and have happy lives, and their children afterwards, and so on.

Ultimately that's all that matters, great schemes and destiny are for Gods, if there is such a thing.

That's my point. The universe doesn't care what you want. 

I doubt it cares about very much at all, unless we are going with the Babylon 5 Minbari idea that the universe is conscious and we are the universe trying to understand itself... which was always cool.

But then Babylon 5 was great.

Kurtis

The other thing about the hypothetical utopia is we all want different things, to different extents, so who's ideal would it be based on and how do you enforce it on everyone else?

Any system needs to work for the majority.


I mean, personally, I think babylon5 is shit 


I've never seen it. 

snowblind

If we're getting all existential how's this for a scenario?

The universe in all its vast complexity IS conscious on some level and it is also aware of its own mortality. At the same time it does not have material control over its own makeup but it does have influence. This influence when brought to bear in favorable environments can bring about the creation of organic life. The goal of this life is to develop to a point at which it can have a material effect on the fabric of the universe. In essence life becomes influential enough to be able to manage the structure of the universe in order to prolong its existence. A win-win for both life and the universe which contains it. Naturally what constitutes life is not limited to purely organic forms. Organic life gives rise to machine life or hybrids thereof, forever increasing the scale of that life's existence to the point at which is becomes genuinely useful to the universe. 

This could be envisioned in judeo-christian or muslim terms as humans developing to the point at which they could have a conversation with their deity. After all anyone with kids knows you don't want them to remain children forever.

If we allow for the probability that this planet is not the only one in the entire universe with sentient life then there does seem to be a hurdle in the development which prevents elevation to the point at which things become observable. That also raises the somewhat terrifying possibility that this is the only planet in the whole shooting match that has evolved organic life. I would suggest that if this was the case then we have some degree of responsibility to make as much of ourselves as possible.

Or we can just open another beer and watch some more uninspiring football from from England.

darthed1981

snowblind said:

If we're getting all existential how's this for a scenario?

The universe in all its vast complexity IS conscious on some level and it is also aware of its own mortality. At the same time it does not have material control over its own makeup but it does have influence. This influence when brought to bear in favorable environments can bring about the creation of organic life. The goal of this life is to develop to a point at which it can have a material effect on the fabric of the universe. In essence life becomes influential enough to be able to manage the structure of the universe in order to prolong its existence. A win-win for both life and the universe which contains it. Naturally what constitutes life is not limited to purely organic forms. Organic life gives rise to machine life or hybrids thereof, forever increasing the scale of that life's existence to the point at which is becomes genuinely useful to the universe. 

This could be envisioned in judeo-christian or muslim terms as humans developing to the point at which they could have a conversation with their deity. After all anyone with kids knows you don't want them to remain children forever.

If we allow for the probability that this planet is not the only one in the entire universe with sentient life then there does seem to be a hurdle in the development which prevents elevation to the point at which things become observable. That also raises the somewhat terrifying possibility that this is the only planet in the whole shooting match that has evolved organic life. I would suggest that if this was the case then we have some degree of responsibility to make as much of ourselves as possible.

Or we can just open another beer and watch some more uninspiring football from from England.

I have a feeling discussing this down the pub would be more interesting than watching football.

That said, simply scratching oneself in two places at once is more interesting than the Slovenia game was.

Kurtis

snowblind said:

If we're getting all existential how's this for a scenario?

The universe in all its vast complexity IS conscious on some level and it is also aware of its own mortality. At the same time it does not have material control over its own makeup but it does have influence. This influence when brought to bear in favorable environments can bring about the creation of organic life. The goal of this life is to develop to a point at which it can have a material effect on the fabric of the universe. In essence life becomes influential enough to be able to manage the structure of the universe in order to prolong its existence. A win-win for both life and the universe which contains it. Naturally what constitutes life is not limited to purely organic forms. Organic life gives rise to machine life or hybrids thereof, forever increasing the scale of that life's existence to the point at which is becomes genuinely useful to the universe. 

This could be envisioned in judeo-christian or muslim terms as humans developing to the point at which they could have a conversation with their deity. After all anyone with kids knows you don't want them to remain children forever.

If we allow for the probability that this planet is not the only one in the entire universe with sentient life then there does seem to be a hurdle in the development which prevents elevation to the point at which things become observable. That also raises the somewhat terrifying possibility that this is the only planet in the whole shooting match that has evolved organic life. I would suggest that if this was the case then we have some degree of responsibility to make as much of ourselves as possible.

Or we can just open another beer and watch some more uninspiring football from from England.

Sounds a bit more Hindu than Christian. Do you believe it enough to say it's the way though? 

The thing is that "making as much of ourselves as possible" can mean many things to many people.
Drinking beer and watching football is only one of an almost infinite number of things you could choose to do, and if it makes you happy then why should it mean any less?
There's a lot worse things you could do.

Maybe if we'd all decided to watch football and drink beer to begin with we would all be a lot happier. 

Kurtis

A wise man once said that the truly enlightened go by unnoticed.