[post=6576859]In this thread[/post] the question was asked ‘what would you do with three wishes’ and my reply was…
So here I am to ask Dopers to debate* what the actual question should be.
What is one question, that if answered, would reveal everything that is hidden about Life, the Universe, and Everything?
I think that “What is the reality of the existance of life after death?” is too limited, as is “What is the purpose of life?”
Perhaps I should pose the idea that it may not be possible to ask a single question, but somehow I can’t let go of the idea that there should be one. A sort of ‘unified field theory’ version of the ultimate question.
Mods, I couldn’t decide between GD and IMHO so I flipped a coin. If the coin was wrong, I’m sure you’ll fix it.
If there’s a great question, there’s some sort of reason. A reason implies thought, and if there is thought behind the great question, then it’s not the great question anymore(for it does not explain the thought that serves as its reason).
I am a Christian. The question whose answer would settle most of the issues I have with my faith would be: What is the nature of God’s relationship with and interaction with our world today? Once I got that one answered, I’d probably follow up with some physics and cosmos questions, like Lord Ashtar’s.
That’s my point, if there’s a reason, there’s a thought behind it, which must either have a reason (which has a corresponding higher thought) or have no reason. So the top level construct has to be without reason.
An answer to that would go a long way toward explaining the fundamental structure of the universe as well as whether it was constructed or came spontaneously into being.
“I’m afraid that the Question and the Answer are mutually exclusive. Knowledge of one logically precludes knowledge of the other. It is impossible that both can ever be known about the same universe. Except, if it happened, it seems that the Question and the Answer would just cancel each other out and take the Universe with them, which would then be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. It is possible that this has already happened, but there is a certain amount of Uncertainty about it.”
Okay, with that cheap shot out of the way…
I think the overall question of “Life, the Universe, and Everything” can generally be broken down into three general categories:
[ol]
[li]How does the world work?[/li][li]Why is the world here?[/li][li]What is my purpose in the world?[/li][/ol]
(By “world” I mean the entire experiential universe, not just our modest little ball of iron and rock, polluted by icky green mold and smelly pinkish-brown ape-things.)
To the first question we have at least the faint, speculative hope of an answer; it is indeed possible that we might discover the underlying mechanics to the Universe which will make sense of the bizarreness of quantum mechanics, rationalize gravity, and make order out of the apparent chaos of indeterminacy. This may well allow us all sorts of new abilities that improve our lifestyles, from being able to flit across astronomical distances in infinitesimal moments of time, to destroying entire solar systems with the push of a button, to finally figuring out how to keep a cup of coffee at just the right temperature to be neither injuriously scalding nor undrinkably nasty, the latter being a problem that continuously plagues our best minds and prevents a true resolution to the problems of world peace, a cure for cancer, and the orgasmic joy of Starbucks-haunting Trixies all over Lincoln Park. It will not, however, believe that it will give us any real insight into the more transcendental nature of existance. Like a Haynes manual, it simple explains what goes on under the hood.
The second question is a bit more vexing; it has as a premise, the implicit assumption that there is in fact a volition and purpose behind the existence of the world, which is a bit of tautology: “The World exists for the Purposes of the Maker, who Created it to fullfil its Purpose.” Huh. From what I’ve seen, nobody can provide any meaningful answer to the question, or indeed, any genuine avenue of exploration to objectively answer the query, vague mystical notions about God’s (unrevealed) Plan and such aside. It’s possible, I suppose, that there’s some kind of Creator and a Purpose (it always helps to put capital letters on concepts you can’t really identify in order to make them seem more philosophically concrete) but as far as anybody can demonstrate that purpose may be to vent off a little bit of extra entropy that was polluting Celestious Prime. We could just be the byproduct of a waste reservoir for some intercosmic hot rod. Now, wouldn’t that be a bummer to discover?
As for the third question…what a silly question! You’re hear to pay taxes and shut the hell up, Citizen. I want five boxes of shit filled up by the end of your shift, or you’re getting written up. Now get back to work.