It all arises from nothing... So I boil it down to nothing.

One of my favorite theories concerning existence is that the universe or cosmos is a sentient organism and we are sub-personalities within it created for a type of self-reflection and problem solving. The purpose of conscious existence in this theory is to whitness and recognize the universe, which depending on the state of evolution will appear different to the life-form. The higher evolved the being, the more accurate perhaps the reflection can become. Once a sub-personality could fully comprehend the entirity of the cosmos-self there would be a cosmic orgasm of recognition and the sub-personality would merge with the cosmos-self and the universe as we know it would ceise to exist. The cosmos-self would have evolved and would move on to new and unimaginable adventures...

Inanimate matter is needed as a base for life to form in this universe with these sets of rules. Without the vastness of space and the amount of inanimate matter, the elements needed to create amino acids and thus life would not have come together.

In this theory our entire universe is the evolution of what some may call God.

I've enjoyed thinking like this too, but you put it rather eloquently. I enjoy likening us to individual cells within a body where every cell "thinks" (if we get a bit anthropomorphic here for a bit) it's just doing its own thing; it's just taking care of its own metabolism - or at best the metabolism of nearby friendly cells - but never could attain the kind of scope to discern the larger human being, and conceive of how the human goes about living its life. Perhaps in this analogy, various proteins, enzymes, fats, neurotransmitters, nutrients and such compare best with the inanimate physical reality of our world. These things may not be "alive" as cells are, but they are nonetheless crucial to our living functions.

That's deep...

thanks for extrapolating, DisEmboDied. I enjoyed reading that. Always fun to see what questions we can come up with and what kinds of answers to fit. This thread is funny, wonderful and provoking. But especially Jees' soliloquy, with that one I think I relate best, wtf'd hardest.

I also was going to put the 500ml bit, but might have seemed a bit rude being the first response.

There is one thing I am tempted to add though, that knowledge, of this kind -- not knowledge per say as that of the practical but "as distinct from the procedural 'knowledge how", as Seldom put it -- always seems to come at the detriment of our personal growth. It is rather inhibiting, to the functionality of the human experience. Real knowing is a retardation of life, is growing old in heart and dying, is downsyndrome. The epileptic knows all for a time, yet does not function too swell in the world for it to be any use knowing anything at all but to not let off the tongue between his own teeth.


"This face is an epilepsy, its wordless tongue gives
         out the unearthly cry,
Its veins down the neck distend, its eyes roll till
         they show nothing but their whites,
Its teeth grit, the palms of the hands are cut by
         the turned-in nails,
The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground
         while he speculates well."


I rather not boil existence, it's boiling hot enough here for me just as it stands.

+1

Without sex, there is no existence


EDIT: Is this question the same as "what is the meaning of life"? (thou my answer would be the same)

do not boil existence

vaporize it

Just one possible way of looking at it that I have in my mind lately:

Life is a transforming mechanism, part of the universe`s digestion system. We receive certain stimulus during our lives, transform it inside of ourselves, and emit it back, which feeds the universe (Like the enzymes and bacteria inside of our gut, essential to our existance)

When we are born, the universe seeds us, and when we die, the universe harvests us. It may seem weird but life exists because of death (and being `eaten up`), it´s not just the end, it`s the whole purpose, just like a plant that was planted and grown only because it is later harvested and used.

I also tie this model to evolution/personal development. The more we evolve, the better food we are giving to the universe. It´s like our soul is something to be grown through the friction generated by inner effort towards improvement and balance. So if during our lives we just stay within our comfort zone, are selfish and negative to others etc, it´s as if when we die we are some cheap unhealthy fast food to the universe, but the more we develop ourselves, the better quality we are giving back.

This connects the importance of personal actions with the existential realm (though obviously many questions arise too. On one hand I think nothing matters and it is what it is beyond our control (so don´t get stressed or worked up), but I also think at the same time each and every single action and moment are eternal and therefore infinitely important (so live thoughtfully and enjoy).

I think if you take everything everyone said...

That is existence.

And then some.

Existence, in my eyes, is whatever you make of it. People all have different answers, but when they die, it doesn't matter. All that they could ever influence will die out eventually. And what sort of an impact they made doesn't even necessarily boil down to what they see existence as in the first place.

In the end , you are born, you live, you die. Existence is about getting the most out of life. And, there are many paths up the same mountain.

interesting thoughts .. along similar lines to endlessness i've thought recently of a temporally cyclical swarm of infinitesimals that exist at a special point linked to, but just ahead of our present; that creatively dissipates itself into the past to form the fabric of our universe and the motion that animates it in a process which, when complete, then comprises a swarm itself (meaning time is a circle that repeats itself in an infinitely varied way) and begins to dissipate itself again (the first movements of which would possibly create a big bang ?) .. our universe would therefore be made of the same material as the swarm, and the process of the swarm's elements travelling back in time to comprise our present would be an indeterminately configured and fundamentally creative enterprise whose objective is to alter the form of the swarm itself (which our universe once again becomes (in a reconfigured form) once the swarm is fully dissipated) .. this means our present would be an experiment exploring how the swarm (God) can change itself through its alteration of our (its) lives .. meaning we're made of God, and will go on to make a different God .. everything is alive ..

I can't think of anything to match what's already been said. This thread is awesome!

But on the subject of inanimate objects having awareness, I once heard of a theory that atoms behave differently when they're being observed. I think it's called the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Very interesting stuff.