The part that made me pause and think about it was in the end of Pinker's
article - the fear of nihilism. Probably I stopped there because it
wasn't the first time I thought about this problem (mostly because of my friend - huge fan of Richard Dawkins, his influence made me read The Selfish Gene). The main questions of this fear - what is the reason of our existence? why do we live? is there any particular goal to reach?
Pinker's answer is that we live only to pass our genes. It is the only reason why nature created our ancestors, why it created us and that's why it will create all future generations. Everything we love, hate, enjoy, anticipate, hope, believe in "are just figments of a brain pursuing selfish evolutionary strategies" (p.7). If we compare the whole time of existence of our universe to one year we are living in the very last second of this year. With this point of view all our choices are nothing in the meaning of Earth's time. But this choices can make a difference in our lifetime, in lives of our family and friends. In our own universes sometimes several days or even seconds can mean much more than all 14 billion years from the Big Bang. So enjoy the moment!
Let's return to the insignificance of human's life. I can't agree that it is always true. Imagine the least desirable event in the world - Third World War (hope it will never happen). This war will be with nuclear weapons that will destroy nearly everything on our planet and will drastically change the way it evolve. It will destroy the evolution chain the Nature tries to build. So actually one human being who send the first missile will be the person who goes against selfishness of nature. But maybe it is Nature's choice to clean everything out and start from scratch? Lots of species disappeared during catastrophes that were unpredictable in our point of view (as fall of meteorite) but after these events evolution rashly continued with remaining creatures. Perhaps after our elimination some rabbit or fish will evolve in a new kind of intelligence life that after thousands/millions years will also ask questions about purpose of their existence. But we won't know about it.
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ReplyDeletePinker's article made me pause and think about what it all meant. Your blog post made me stop and realized there might be an explanation behind it all whether we know it yet or not. What is the reason of our existence? Why do we live? Is there a particular goal to reach? These questions are still buzzing in my mind and I know they will be long after this class. I don't believe we will ever know the answers to these questions, however the curiosity behind them will not let us stop searching. I agree that the Third World War would be the end all for our planet. It would probably clean out all life and start fresh. I like to think there is a reason behind everything. Maybe that will be nature's way of rebuilding what we humans have torn down. We can continue to question and question the very reasons we are here, however the point is moot. This begs the question, should we even bother with the debate? We will never know or will probably not be around long enough to see the final goal (if there even is one).
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