[bahrain41]

I've read & re-read this and while I like it a lot, I'm still digesting all it might mean.

Is this the meaning of life? | John Stewart | Science | guardian.co.uk

What might organised life and intelligence do with this increasing power? One possible answer was developed as an attempt to solve the "fine-tuning problem" – the enigma of why the fundamental laws and parameters of the universe seem to be fine-tuned to support the emergence of life, with even slight changes leading to a universe in which life is unlikely to emerge. Supposing the trajectory of evolution eventually produces life and intelligence with sufficient power and knowledge to reproduce the universe itself? This intelligent universe would fine-tune "offspring" universes so that they are even more conducive to the emergence and development of life and intelligence. And so on.

According to this scenario, our universe itself is embedded in larger evolutionary processes that shape universes. And life (including humanity) has a function and purpose within these larger processes in the same sense that our eyes have a purpose within the evolutionary processes that have shaped humanity.

[P1international]

I've read & re-read this and while I like it a lot, I'm still digesting all it might mean.

Cue the music.

[quedry36]

More on the idea that *all* is just intelligence evolving...

CultureLab: The universe is a quantum computer

[DoctorQuquriramba]

That was a cool article and I enjoyed. However, I was just mindf***ed!

[PareKeect]

I just listened to two weeks worth of NPR science friday I cannot summon the science to read that.

[Imampaictjg]

O its nothing too taxing Dayman, just the regular old "knowledge of good & evil," proton meet electron type stuff.

[Hlennisal]

Isn't the meaning of Life.... 42?

[Saduyre9de]

Craz this is what I was touching on when I waxed philosophic the other day... we've outgrown the need for a god just as we've outgrown the need for our brainstem to drive us to eat fatty salty foods & procreate with little thought for the future.

Its not the evolution of man, or of life on Earth, its the evolution of intelligence itself... That's the meaning of life.

Also, yes, 42.

[mxzjxluwst]

If you want to get into the neuroscience of it, a good test would be to see if in the next 1000-10,000 years (or there abouts), we develop a new layer of our brains.

[ZonaPutaX]

Its not the evolution of man, or of life on Earth, its the evolution of intelligence itself... That's the meaning of life.

Or the meaning of life is simply to carry forward the chemical reaction that began at some point in the primordial soup. In that view, the evolution of intelligence is just one of many successful paths that have enabled the chemical reaction to continue.

[Brainpole]

Craz this is what I was touching on when I waxed philosophic the other day... we've outgrown the need for a god just as we've outgrown the need for our brainstem to drive us to eat fatty salty foods & procreate with little thought for the future.

Its not the evolution of man, or of life on Earth, its the evolution of intelligence itself... That's the meaning of life.

Also, yes, 42.

Is "Waxing Philosophic" one of the options at the salon? And how much would you charge for such a waxing?

[GillTeepbew]

Or the meaning of life is simply to carry forward the chemical reaction that began at some point in the primordial soup. In that view, the evolution of intelligence is just one of many successful paths that have enabled the chemical reaction to continue.

You didn't read the first link.

[bjacogaerllyo]

Is "Waxing Philosophic" one of the options at the salon? And how much would you charge for such a waxing?

Is this a reference to my bikini wax crank caller?

[Ingeborga]

Is this a reference to my bikini wax crank caller?

No, but it would make an excellent, if somewhat highbrow, crank call to a waxing place, wouldn't it?

[lE3l6Lgn]

literal lol!

[TCjwwhcY]

No, but it would make an excellent, if somewhat highbrow, crank call to a waxing place, wouldn't it?

Or a great name for a salon.

[shinesw]

... or a great sig.

[9V4i8xw1]

You didn't read the first link.

I did. I've also read Arthur C. Clarke, at least half of whose work seems to focus on humanity standing at the kind of threshold Stewart describes. (I'm also vaguely familiar with the anthropic principle of cosmology, which informs Stewart's proposal about tweaking universes.)

If we view the question in purely materialistic terms, the meaning of life isn't intelligence. The vast majority of living things don't have anything approaching sapience. When one considers the timeline of life on earth, intelligence has been around so briefly as to be almost irrelevant.

Stewart's just sorting out who will get to keep the chemical reaction going. (And while cooperation between societies may increase, competition for mates within societies has shown no sign of decreasing.)