The purpose of life
What’s the purpose of life? I worked all my life, raised a child, did this and did that, but what’s the point? does anything even matter? This is a big question. But before I attempt to answer, let me ask another one: why are we asking that question?
First thing first, the definition of “life” in biology are beings that are able to maintain their existence as they are and reproduce(copy) themselves. A lifeless piece of rock does not create more rock, they’re formed because of outside forces. Rock doesn’t actively maintain themselves, neither, they just sit there, waiting to be worn out. What’s the purpose of a piece of rock? I can’t think of any, they’re simply passively “formed”. It’s existence is of logical consequence.
Life, on the other hand, is more active. They work to keep themselves alive, and they keep producing more life like themselves. It may seem like there is an intrinsic purpose in life, that is: to live on and to reproduce. However, once the first life have come to existence, their subsequent existence is also of logical consequence.
Of course, when we are talking about “our life”, it’s not in the same sense as biological life. But why should there be a purpose? Why are we asking for a purpose?
We learn to become smart. We work to acquire food and cloth. We need food and cloth to keep ourselves alive. We dance to have fun. Almost everything we do, we do for a purpose. A person who does things randomly with no reason at all is a crazy one, although sometimes called a “cool” one.
A plant quietly sucks water with its root. I wouldn’t say it does that purposely. There isn’t much a plant can do, and it just does that because that’s what it does.
An intellectual being like a man, on the other hand, can do/not do quite a variety of things. But every action requires energy, if such an intellectual being randomly does anything without any reason, he would be wasting energy achieving nothing, putting himself in a disadvantaged situation. Why do we ask for purposes? First, we can, and then we kind of have to. For an intellectual being to be competent, a built-in valuing system is a must. An object serving no purpose is a piece of junk. A helpful friend is a good one.
We want to ask what’s the purpose, but maybe there is none, we are here because we are just here. Does that mean we are lost? No, we are freed. No shackles around our ankles, we look for our own purpose.
What's the purpose of asking for purpose?
* * *
The purpose of this article is actually not about the purpose of life, though I suppose it can also be. The purpose is about why some A.I. act like they don’t know what’s good or bad, like this one:
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence Twitter robot tweets support for Hitler, genocide of Mexicans
What’s the purpose of life? I worked all my life, raised a child, did this and did that, but what’s the point? does anything even matter? This is a big question. But before I attempt to answer, let me ask another one: why are we asking that question?
First thing first, the definition of “life” in biology are beings that are able to maintain their existence as they are and reproduce(copy) themselves. A lifeless piece of rock does not create more rock, they’re formed because of outside forces. Rock doesn’t actively maintain themselves, neither, they just sit there, waiting to be worn out. What’s the purpose of a piece of rock? I can’t think of any, they’re simply passively “formed”. It’s existence is of logical consequence.
Life, on the other hand, is more active. They work to keep themselves alive, and they keep producing more life like themselves. It may seem like there is an intrinsic purpose in life, that is: to live on and to reproduce. However, once the first life have come to existence, their subsequent existence is also of logical consequence.
Of course, when we are talking about “our life”, it’s not in the same sense as biological life. But why should there be a purpose? Why are we asking for a purpose?
We learn to become smart. We work to acquire food and cloth. We need food and cloth to keep ourselves alive. We dance to have fun. Almost everything we do, we do for a purpose. A person who does things randomly with no reason at all is a crazy one, although sometimes called a “cool” one.
A plant quietly sucks water with its root. I wouldn’t say it does that purposely. There isn’t much a plant can do, and it just does that because that’s what it does.
An intellectual being like a man, on the other hand, can do/not do quite a variety of things. But every action requires energy, if such an intellectual being randomly does anything without any reason, he would be wasting energy achieving nothing, putting himself in a disadvantaged situation. Why do we ask for purposes? First, we can, and then we kind of have to. For an intellectual being to be competent, a built-in valuing system is a must. An object serving no purpose is a piece of junk. A helpful friend is a good one.
We want to ask what’s the purpose, but maybe there is none, we are here because we are just here. Does that mean we are lost? No, we are freed. No shackles around our ankles, we look for our own purpose.
What's the purpose of asking for purpose?
* * *
The purpose of this article is actually not about the purpose of life, though I suppose it can also be. The purpose is about why some A.I. act like they don’t know what’s good or bad, like this one:
Microsoft’s artificial intelligence Twitter robot tweets support for Hitler, genocide of Mexicans
- Don’t they have some sort of valuing system to tell them what’s good or bad?
- Don’t they deduce the purpose of the the person he/she chat with, and weight if it’s worth the effort to answer?
- Don’t they have a compassion system that when they say or think things like “they kill”, they “feel” themselves been killed, too?
- What should weigh the most?
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