But if you are energy and matter... why have agency? You are going to stick around regardless. It’s not like energy and matter are going anywhere - they hang about just as the asteroids and floating gas clouds do. What is different about this glob of matter where it puts itself through the almost insurmountable and tireless effort to be “living” - a constant state of struggle against the odds. — Benj96
"Why" not?... why have agency? — Benj96
Life' is, at the very least, a dissipative system constituted by self-replicating machinery 'energized' by (still) being on a low (enough) entropy'gradient. In other words, 'life' is biochemically programmed to metabolize and replicate / reproduce constantly self-regulated by homeostasis as its primary driver (i.e. strange attractor). Also, vide Spinoza's conatus. And try not to piss in the gene pool — 180 Proof
But what is it for? — Benj96
The underlying, absolutely radical, meaning of "Origin of Species" is that life, evolution, and, by extension everything else, are not for anything. There is no meaning or purpose for anything. No "why." — T Clark
So that it can be. — Fine Doubter
But what is it for? Why is this glob of matter reluctant to be at the full mercy of the universe around it? — Benj96
the unlucky few survive and replicate for a few million years — unenlightened
it makes exactly as much sense as the analogy of the selfish gene — unenlightened
Why is this glob of matter reluctant to be at the full mercy of the universe around it? — Benj96
But if you are energy and matter... why have agency? — Benj96
If it’s an illusion why would even the illusion ever come to exist unless it has some advantage or is it just a funky by-product of complexity — Benj96
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.