# What is the point of living if we're all going to die?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [February 7, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123 "2019-02-07T15:06:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/124 "2019-02-11T20:02:17Z")
> [@bizerta](#):
>
> On the other hand, they’re both Bronze Age folklore.
The New Testament definitely isn’t Bronze Age, and most of the Old Testament is Iron Age or later.
This Bronze Age post has been nitpicked by the Nitpickist.
---
### Author:  [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/125 "2019-02-13T14:31:35Z")
I got news for you buddy: If you want to be dead, just wait. Eventually, you will be. And for a very, very, very long time.
Every person that is alive today could be dead in five minutes if they chose to be. Most people chose to stay alive. Think about it.
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/126 "2019-02-13T14:57:02Z")
Imagine if we (or anything like us) didn’t exist, imagine if there was no life at all in the universe. The universe would come into existence, would exist for billions/trillions of years, include uncountable marvels from supernovae, to quasars to black holes, planets and subatomic mysteries, and nothing, at any point in the universe’s entire existence would have so much as recognized that the universe existed at all. This unimaginably huge, long lived and diverse creation would have been reduced to utter irrelevance.
What is the point, what is the meaning? We give the universe purpose. We (along with any other sentient beings that may or may not exist) are the only possible witnesses to the universe’s existence. Is that important? I dunno, but it feels wrong for the universe, a creation of such grandeur, to go unrecognized.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/127 "2019-02-13T15:31:27Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> Imagine if we (or anything like us) didn’t exist, imagine if there was no life at all in the universe. The universe would come into existence, would exist for billions/trillions of years, include uncountable marvels from supernovae, to quasars to black holes, planets and subatomic mysteries, and nothing, at any point in the universe’s entire existence would have so much as recognized that the universe existed at all. This unimaginably huge, long lived and diverse creation would have been reduced to utter irrelevance.
>
> What is the point, what is the meaning? We give the universe purpose. We (along with any other sentient beings that may or may not exist) are the only possible witnesses to the universe’s existence. Is that important? I dunno, but it feels wrong for the universe, a creation of such grandeur, to go unrecognized.
What is the big difference between 99% of the universe being unrecognized, and 100% of the universe being unrecognized…and why are we the important part of this equation? Would we be any less important if we weren’t recognized by gnats, rats or cats?
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/128 "2019-02-13T15:44:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> What is the big difference between 99% of the universe being unrecognized, and 100% of the universe being unrecognized…and why are we the important part of this equation?
We have awareness, and nothing else does. Without something that has the capacity of awareness, there’s no difference between a universe that exists for trillions of years expanding unceasingly into the void and a universe that collapsed back into nothingness a millionth of a second after reaching the size of a peanut. If literally nothing in the universe can distinguish between the two scenarios, are the scenarios different?
> [@](#):
>
> Would we be any less important if we weren’t recognized by gnats, rats or cats?
Don’t need 'em, we have self awareness.
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### Author:  [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/129 "2019-02-13T15:47:31Z")
All this because humans have analytical minds. Animals don’t care what’s out there or if God exists. We are the curious creatures who must know everything. We enrich our lives and even animals benefits from us.
We are special.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/130 "2019-02-13T15:50:47Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> We have awareness, and nothing else does.
[That may not be true, according to this article on self-awareness in animals.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-awareness#Animals)
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/131 "2019-02-13T16:02:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> [That may not be true, according to this article on self-awareness in animals.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-awareness#Animals)
I don’t mean to say that humans are completely unique in having awareness, but life is. We are members of a group that has awareness, there may be others, including animals or aliens, but without the group we belong to, the universe would exist without anything ever being aware of its existence.
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### Author:  [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/132 "2019-02-13T18:13:08Z")
That’s very true. We don’t have to exist. There can be things and that’s it.
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### Author:  [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/133 "2019-02-13T21:52:04Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#):
>
> I don’t mean to say that humans are completely unique in having awareness, but life is. We are members of a group that has awareness, there may be others, including animals or aliens, but without the group we belong to, the universe would exist without anything ever being aware of its existence.
Most computers are aware they exist. They may not be aware of much else, but they are aware that they have ongoing status.
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### Author:  [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/134 "2019-02-13T22:00:05Z")
If you’re saying that computers have minds you are wrong. They are just following program structures such as if… then…
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### Author:  [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2019, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/135 "2019-02-13T22:16:10Z")
> [@begbert2](#):
>
> Most computers are aware they exist. They may not be aware of much else, but they are aware that they have ongoing status.
wut
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### Author:  [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/136 "2019-02-14T00:56:28Z")
> [@SigMan](#):
>
> If you’re saying that computers have minds you are wrong. They are just following program structures such as if… then…
And brains just follow neurons and various electrochemical reactions.
I’m not saying that computers have deep thoughts or anything; I’m more pointing out that consciousness is difficult to define and that it doesn’t take much to establish a computer that carries out all the qualifying behaviors in the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny ‘sensory space’ it inhabits. Computers as a rule are aware of very little of the world around them, and don’t bother to think too hard about much of what they’re aware of beyond handing it off to some output device and then forgetting about it, but one of the things that a computer does regularly monitor is its own operating status. So your typical computer is ‘self aware’ - and not aware of much of anything _else_.
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### Author:  [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/137 "2019-02-14T03:29:48Z")
“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.”
Carlos Casteneda
You plan for dinner parties and exams. You live life.
Just ride the ride, is all.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/138 "2019-02-14T08:04:15Z")
> [@SigMan](#):
>
> If you’re saying that computers have minds you are wrong. They are just following program structures such as if… then…
So far computers don’t have minds. But if you think modern software is simply following if then else you are way behind the times. Systems that learn modify their behavior based on their training, for example.
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/139 "2019-02-14T08:06:58Z")
> [@begbert2](#):
>
> And brains just follow neurons and various electrochemical reactions.
>
> I’m not saying that computers have deep thoughts or anything; I’m more pointing out that consciousness is difficult to define and that it doesn’t take much to establish a computer that carries out all the qualifying behaviors in the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny ‘sensory space’ it inhabits. Computers as a rule are aware of very little of the world around them, and don’t bother to think too hard about much of what they’re aware of beyond handing it off to some output device and then forgetting about it, but one of the things that a computer does regularly monitor is its own operating status. So your typical computer is ‘self aware’ - and not aware of much of anything _else_.
The journal I wrote a column for had a special issue on self aware systems, and only one paper looked at the problem in any sort of real way. The others said that voltage and temperature sensing inside the computer was an example of self awareness, which is sexy but misleading.
Our bodies so a lot of this also, but below the conscious level.
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### Author:  [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/140 "2019-02-14T12:54:55Z")
> [@begbert2](#):
>
> And brains just follow neurons and various electrochemical reactions.
>
> I’m not saying that computers have deep thoughts or anything; I’m more pointing out that consciousness is difficult to define and that it doesn’t take much to establish a computer that carries out all the qualifying behaviors in the tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny ‘sensory space’ it inhabits. Computers as a rule are aware of very little of the world around them, and don’t bother to think too hard about much of what they’re aware of beyond handing it off to some output device and then forgetting about it, but one of the things that a computer does regularly monitor is its own operating status. So your typical computer is ‘self aware’ - and not aware of much of anything _else_.
I still say you’re wrong. Awareness (to us) came from senses such as touch, smell and taste. Besides, we are self “programmed”, computers are run on codes written by humans.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/141 "2019-02-14T17:23:06Z")
> [@bizerta](#):
>
> Too sanitized. I prefer the New International Version of Ezekiel 23:20 “She lusted after her lovers, who’s genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.”
Given that most of us DON’T have a frame of reference for picturing what the emission [being] like that of horses would look like, maybe it’s time for a new edit:
> [@Proposed new edit](#):
>
> _…whose emission was like that of Peter North._
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### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/142 "2019-02-14T17:38:49Z")
> [@SigMan](#):
>
> Besides, we are self “programmed”, computers are run on codes written by humans.
If computers are, or become sometime in the future, truly self aware, then so be it. They get to join the club.
I’m not picky.
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### Author:  [@SigMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SigMan)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-point-of-living-if-were-all-going-to-die/829123/143 "2019-02-14T18:11:54Z")
Yes they can do that with sensors but we have to show them how.
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