h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey /0

I agree with your theory....."Life" is all that happens before we die....The "meaning" we may or may not find out then...my guess is that we should all live "life" to the fullest every day, and every night you should go to sleep with a clear conscience, because..."YOU NEVER KNOW".....

The meaning of life? easy:

"The property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction, and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organism."

Seriously though, a lot of people talking here have the right idea - the meaning of life is living, with all the ups and downs entailed. We were not put here for a reason - we were not put here at all in fact, except by combination of circumstance and natural selection, so let's ask instead the question: "What meaning can we give to our lives?" rather than assuming that there is already a predetermined one.

Hey Happy Door
Amen!!

Barb

My observation of the meaning of life is, " Don't Take life to seriously, or else you wont't get very far."

Az

Thanks for your last message. I guess African people tend to be fatalistic in a way. Sometimes I think they are much happier than the Western society. The more you know, the more miserable you feel.

I fully agree that life shouldn't be taken seriously and in fact, this sounds as the perfect prescription how to take it. Unluckily, this is rather difficult.

i cant believe this is still going, yahoo!

Google! AltaVista! AskJeeves!
Anyway, are we still on the money topic? I'd like to hear some of the newcomers' ideas.

Well, we need something to talk about and since I have been gone for a while I would like to use one of those "newcomer posts" where you just say what you think while ignoring the rest of the conversation (although at this time the whole thing seems to be sort of stuck.)

What exactly is life? How are we supposed to find a meaning for it if we don't actually have a definition for it.

Definitions of life:

n. 1) the state or quality that distinguishes living being or organisms from dead ones and from inorganic matter, chararcterised chiefly by metabolism, growth and the ability to reproduce and respond to stimuli. 2) the period between birth and death. 3) a living person or being. 4) the time between birth and the present time. 5) the remainder or extent of one's own life. . .

actually, there are 33 definitions here in my Collins Dictionary but this might get things rolling again . . . maybe . . .

az

42 may be the meaning of life, but what of the question? Actually, we do know the question. It's, what is 9 multiplied by 7? A mathematician may say it is 63, but what if we have this counting thing all wrong? For example, one could see and count 3 apples in front of them, but maybe they only percieve 3 and there really are 42 apples? Maybe the only reason we use counting, is to try to prove that what we see actually exists in reality. Maybe we're a bit mixed up Perhaps everything comes in sets of 42's. 42 apples, 42 members of h2g2. I'll have 42 fried chicken wings with a side of 42 lumps of mashed potatoes!

exactly! If you look at life to closely snd try to find how it works, how lond it lasts etc. You can't get very far. If life followed a strict plan, living things wouldn't have the power of free will. One has the power to control one's own life, and instead of trying to control it, one should go with the flow of life. Ford for example, embraced action and adventure. Definitions didn't mean anything to him, and look how he turned. He was an adventurous fun-loving guy!

Did you just respond to yourself?

And do we really have any free will? I think (but don't and can't believe) that everything that is going to happen was decided whenever it (everything) all started. Nothing can happen randomly, and nothing can be created so everything that happens is simply a reaction to everything else that has already happened.

What we see as free will is only an illusion creat3d by our past experiences. Every "decision" that we make is not really a descision because there is only one real choice for us, and that is the one that our past experiences say will turn out the best.

Did you just respond to yourself?

And do we really have any free will? I think (but don't and can't believe) that everything that is going to happen was decided whenever it (everything) all started. Nothing can happen randomly, and nothing can be created so everything that happens is simply a reaction to everything else that has already happened.

What we see as free will is only an illusion creat3d by our past experiences. Every "decision" that we make is not really a descision because there is only one real choice for us, and that is the one that our past experiences say will turn out the best.

Did you just respond to yourself?

And do we really have any free will? I think (but don't and can't believe) that everything that is going to happen was decided whenever it (everything) all started. Nothing can happen randomly, and nothing can be created so everything that happens is simply a reaction to everything else that has already happened.

What we see as free will is only an illusion creat3d by our past experiences. Every "decision" that we make is not really a descision because there is only one real choice for us, and that is the one that our past experiences say will turn out the best.

By the way, does anybody understand the addition to my name? if not i may as well get rid of it

oops that really wasn't my fault

sorry

I didn't mean to respond to myself. My first message was in response to a different conversation that was debating how 42 relates to the meaning of life. When my message popped up in this conversation I reponded to the messages above with my second message. I'm new to h2g2 and this whole communication deal is confusing.

az

ps. well, if you live then why need a definition, surely *you* are the definition, at least for yourself.

that helps.

az, if you're going to totally ignore me, do so and don't make snide remarks. However, if you're not planning to totally ignore me, then, sorry, but I had nothing to say that hadn't been said before, yet felt the urge to say something...