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> it sounds like enjoying yourself is your goal It is one goal of many; there's no reason to limit yourself to a singular goal. I don't claim that my goals hav
by iamnothere 8y ago
> it sounds like enjoying yourself is your goal
It is one goal of many; there's no reason to limit yourself to a singular goal. I don't claim that my goals have any special meaning though, they are simply how I am driven to act in the world. Each of us is driven in different ways, and although we tend to wrap our drives in elaborate disguises and claim "free will", at the end of the day we are simply elegant (though somewhat squishy) machines.
> without another generation to pass it on to, everything that every human has ever done will have been pointless
Yes, that's exactly it. The very notion that anything has to have a "point" or "meaning" is something that humans dreamed up. It's an unfortunate side effect of our sense-making systems that help us understand the world.
- ericd 8y agoI didn't mean that derisively, btw. I think it's perfectly fine to want to focus on other things besides raising children. We don't need more people being raised by parents who don't want to raise them. I do think we can modify our drives, though, and that free will isn't quite as much of an illusion as you say. Visualization is pretty powerful. But you're right that there's not necessarily a real point. If it's a complete fiction, though, I think it's a useful one.
- iamnothere 8y ago> I do think we can modify our drives, though, and that free will isn't quite as much of an illusion as you say. Visualization is pretty powerful. I agree that our drives can be modified, but who is modifying them, and based on what drives? And where does the drive to modify ourselves come from? It's turtles all the way down. To quote Hofstadter: "In the end, we self-perceiving, self-inventing, locked-in mirages are little miracles of self-reference."
- ericd 8y agoHeh fair enough.