I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Let 'er rip.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

How would you rank the following:
Love, Laughter, Longevity, Success, the Lord
-Sam

P.S. I tried and tried to think of an L word for financial & occupational succes. I just couldn't. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Whats a good age to die?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Love. Laughter. The Lord. Longevity. Success.

The L word is "Legacy" or "Professional Legacy"

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Whats a good age to die?

What's a good time to put down a book you'll never finish?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

How important is it to have kids? (Biology) How important is it to RAISE kids? (Culture)
-Sam

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

How important is it to have kids? (Biology)

There's importance, and there's importance. If having them makes a difference? No. If having them teaches you to love? Yes.

How important is it to RAISE kids? (Culture)

Again.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

[ QUOTE ]
Whats a good age to die?

What's a good time to put down a book you'll never finish?

[/ QUOTE ]I'm not sure I follow. Or, rather, I'm almost positive I don't follow.
-Sam

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

If humans could add years to life by eating babies, would it be wiser for me to eat other peoples children and let mine live or to fight for a world where we only eat our own children? In the first case, it would be theoretically possible to erect a worldwide SNOWBALL138 genetic empire, but in the second case, I would only be one of billions of immortal humans.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

I'm not sure I follow. Or, rather, I'm almost positive I don't follow.

You're reading a book that you can never finish. For every page, you assume the end has come, but every page suggests another that follows seamlessly.

You read the first page. When do you want to stop reading?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

If humans could add years to life by eating babies, would it be wiser for me to eat other peoples children and let mine live or to fight for a world where we only eat our own children? In the first case, it would be theoretically possible to erect a worldwide SNOWBALL138 genetic empire, but in the second case, I would only be one of billions of immortal humans.

It's just a book. It's not worth hurting each other over.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

True or false?:
Life is about playing bad and getting there.

Also, whats the proper way to punctuate my question?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Life is about playing bad and getting there.

You will get there. Life is about ignoring the question and finding an answer.

Also, whats the proper way to punctuate my question?

lose the question mark after false and add an apostrophe in "whats".

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Plato once said "The meaning of life is to prepare for death."


Do you think this is true?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Plato once said "The meaning of life is to prepare for death."

Only in the vaguest "understand what death is" sense.

Plato would be a more inspiring man if he'd realized that the only shadows we see on the cave walls are our own.

We're already out in the sunshine, if we'd just get out of our own way.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Plato would be a more inspiring man if he'd realized that the only shadows we see on the cave walls are our own.

We're already out in the sunshine, if we'd just get out of our own way.



This is just a bunch of mystic gibberish. You don't know what you're talking about. Who do you think you are, Jesus? Stop speaking in parables. I need answers!

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

This is just a bunch of mystic gibberish. You don't know what you're talking about. Who do you think you are, Jesus? Stop speaking in parables. I need answers!

You want tough talk?

The you that you can imagine is so tied up in your genetics and your experiences that when you die, nothing of that you will exist.

There is no enduring part of you that needs preparation for anything. Not death, not the LSATS, not a marathon. You'll be fine in any case.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Did the universe have a beginning?

What does it mean to be sentient?

Where are my shoes?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Dear Bison,

I just started reading Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning. Is this a book I should finish?

Thanks,

On an Existential Crash Course

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Did the universe have a beginning?

The universe? Sure. Existence? Not so much.

What does it mean to be sentient?

In my notes here, it says "Sentient = has pets".

Where are my shoes?

"Where you left them" has a certain elegance.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

"You want tough talk?

The you that you can imagine is so tied up in your genetics and your experiences that when you die, nothing of that you will exist.

There is no enduring part of you that needs preparation for anything. Not death, not the LSATS, not a marathon. You'll be fine in any case."


This is much better, thank you. But I think the term "straight talk" would have been more apropos than "tough talk."

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

But I think the term "straight talk" would have been more apropos than "tough talk."

Well, since it doesn't matter in any case, I felt my first explanation was gentle. So an acceptable antonym would be "tough".

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Do you people have some sort of problem with the quote function? It's so much easier to read if you monkeys learn how to use the forum.

Put another way:

Bison, is it worthwhile to personally put forth extra effort, just so others have an easier time in life?
-Sam

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Are you Buddhist?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Bison, is it worthwhile to personally put forth extra effort, just so others have an easier time in life?

Often, yeah.

But I think if my counterpart would learn how to at least italicize things, it wouldn't bother you as much.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

What is the cause of consciousness (self-awareness)? Can any sufficently complicated thing become self aware?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

What is the cause of consciousness (self-awareness)?

The cause is existence.

The necessary condition is an environment in which distinctions between things as they are and things as they might be exists.

Can any sufficently complicated thing become self aware?

The question is circular. Anything sufficiently complicated enough to be self-aware is self-aware, yes.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Bison,

What was your reason for putting the lord before longevity and success? is it more important, or are some of those just unimportant?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Bison,

Is it herpes, or just a rash?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

I'm going to Amsterdam tomorrow, should i pay for sex?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Is this a subtle move to post OOT on Science, Maths & Philosophy forum?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

[ QUOTE ]
Bison,

Is it herpes, or just a rash?

[/ QUOTE ]


[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] BFF [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

How much is reasonable?
How much money is it reasonable to spend extending your dog's life?
If you are on a jury and are 90% sure the defendant is guilty, is 10% reasonable doubt?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

I thought Procol Harem answered this long ago when they told us, “Life is like a beanstalk, isn’t it?”

But, thanks for the offer anyway, BBison. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

[ QUOTE ]

The L word is "Legacy" or "Professional Legacy"

[/ QUOTE ]

No, the L word is "lucre."

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

[ QUOTE ]
Whats a good age to die?

What's a good time to put down a book you'll never finish?

[/ QUOTE ]

After the climax, but is it before or after the dénouement?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

[ QUOTE ]
I thought Procol Harem answered this long ago when they told us, “Life is like a beanstalk, isn’t it?”

But, thanks for the offer anyway, BBison. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

You know, I was kidding here? I didn’t mean to stop the discussion with a definitive answer. Bison was doing such an excellent job with his answers.

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

If you suddenly figure out the meaning of life, do you die instantly?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Time seems impalpable. The instant someone tries to cherish the moment, it becomes past. Why am I still alive and experiencing now?

Re: I will answer your questions about the meaning of life.
 

Time seems impalpable. The instant someone tries to cherish the moment, it becomes past. Why am I still alive and experiencing now?

The word "still" is something we bandy about. It's great if you want to inquire or insult - "Are they still together?" "Are you still writing that novel?" but it doesn't describe reality well.

Each moment that passes, each unmeasurable change in a vast motionless ocean, is a break. A discontinuity. You are not the you of 5 seconds ago, much less 5 days. The past is a foreign country, and you are just an incomprehensible foreignor to your past self the moment you change at all.

Cherishing the moment, or better, cherising now, involves continually and unconciously forgetting the moment that has just been thought of, just now remembered, just now figured out, just now experienced. Unceasing release of moments is all that presence is.

This is why the rejection of doctrine and the embrace of mysticism can be so initially helpful and ultimately distracting - If you rely on moments of inspiration and transcendence to guide you, you will cherish the memories of those moments more than now and now.

And now.

Self-styled intellectuals and mystics are quite similar in this regard.