Is wanting to exist irrational?

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I know It was meant to be a joke.

I got once out of my paleontologist brother the latest [as of last time he would talk to me] on the boundary betwewen [officially] and officially nonlife.

We have somewhere a cut off for volition [I think sea squirts have got to be on the far side for that one. Then you have the "selfish gene" non-volitional drive - whih sea squirts surely have.

And somewhere you cross a line and all you have is the pressure to crystallize [or otherwise organize as a chemical.

The drive to live, me, I would have to be convinced of volition. Which of course is not rational. But I think the seasquirt is out.

BUT - there is the larval sea squirt to worry about.

Never mind - I have no way of knowing what any level of sea squirt really feels.

I don't understand the question at all. Logic is a means to an end, the end being an emotion. So irrational according to what end?

My answer: we simply don't know enough for it to be either rational or irrational. It varies from person to person, what they believe their place in the universe is or isn't. Some people believe that life for the sake of it is an ends in and of itself, others believe that human existence is a fruitless road to nowhere riddled with too much exquisite misery to be worth the while, still others believe that they're eternal and that this life is only a filter or apparatus to change or sculpt their eternal self. Take your pick of these and explore them as you like.

They're serving soilent greens in Finland?

The question implies there is only value in final summation. People look at this planet and rightly conclude it is brimming with life. Not only is there a surfeit of humanity but each human has more living alien mono-cellular life within it than that derived from humanity itself. Life fills every nook and cranny on, below and above its surface. Every living thing has the potential to reproduce itself so many times over that if that potential were fulfilled it would quickly exhaust the planetary capability. And by that, each individual living creature has negligible possibility of coming into existence compared to this monumental potential. Being alive is a fantastic gift of an opportunity to use all of life's awareness potential available merely in existence. And at the age of almost 85 I find that time to witness this intricate universe exceedingly short and in no way have I accomplished even the smallest of possible perceptions that are readily at hand even in the most limited environment. This existence is fabulously fascinating and each moment of each day is a precious experience. Whether I can integrate all this torrent of incoming data into a respectable and worthwhile and final structure is merely one of a multitude of possibilities and challenges and the attempt itself is what I find a delight in working at. I need no more.

Last edited by Sand on 06 Dec 2010, 2:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

And that's a particular point of view that comes from a particular station in life with a particular set of experiences. A few things could have happened differently in your childhood, or you could have been an inch taller or an inch shorter, and that could have made all the difference.

And as the commonality of DNA indicates, I might have been an oyster or strawberry plant.

Fo true.

True, a bit more testosterone through life could have also made the beliefs you currently possess completely inaccessible. There was an interview someone posted in Love & Dating that was done with a guy who had his testosterone production fall to zero, supposedly everything became beautiful, everything had its own purpose in nature, etc. etc.. Not tearing at the corners of your man-card, just indicating that individual brain chemistry makes a big difference on what people will find valuable, what they won't, just like all the different outcomes that someone could reach regarding their view on the value of the sentient experience is highly dependent on what sort of general mood or core experience their lives are saturated in.