Life and Reproduction.

If your read almost anything on evolution, or anything that makes a reference to life's (biologic) purpose, they all will say something along the lines of: "The purpose of any form of life is to reproduce itself".

This pisses me off, because it misses something crucial.

Reproduction is a symptom of life. Not it's purpose. Otherwise, the next meal would be the purpose of life. The next drink. The next step toward the next drink, the next tensing of a muscle toward the next step... ad infinitum.

Life in the plural sense, evolution, whatever, are not purposeful things. What's the purpose of a rock tumbling downhill..? To keep moving..? Purpose, and the concept of purpose are perspectives tacked on after the fact by... us. And as such, become all equally valid if not all equally convincing.

Some would say the purpose of life is to discover the nine billion names of God, others would say it is to make as much money as you can and die snorting coke out of a prostitute's navel. Who's right, and how would you know..?

Does there have to be one..? Unless there is a God, and unless he had a plan for us/life, there is no generalized meaning, or purpose to living. Purposes are reserved for things that are constructed by an outside force - I make a hammer. I make it to hit things. I impose a purpose upon it. But that purpose is a function of my use of it, not inherrent to it as a separate object in itself.

I'm sorry, but everyone gets this idea arse-side up. Reproduction is not automatic to 'life' and a 'species' is a symptom of reproduction, or rather of over-reproduction of a single pattern, not life. The conditions of possessing sexual reproductive capabilities require at least two similar patterns to exist, and preferably more.

If you get down to quantum sized tacks, me and the table this computer sits on are the same stuff. The only difference is (a) the gross pattern upon which the table and I are shaped and (b) the opportunities for 'higher' emergent systems these patterns allow to manifest. ie, I'll never play chess with a table, because the pattern that average "tableness" is based upon, does not facillitate the emergence of self-awareness and abstract thinking.

Your muscles are the memory of every push-up you've ever done, just as your lungs bear the imprint of every cigarette you've ever puffed on. Even in the womb, your little foetal self became in part the embodiment of whatever crap your mother might have been eating during your formation. Epigenetics - chemical markers which left their imprints upon your body and metabolism spurred by the events your mother went through as she carried you, stressful, soothing; events that left their tracks however small, in your brain, your mind.

As much as you are flesh and bone, you are also pattern.


Patterns. All (physical) patterns require energy to maintain them with any fidelity over time, some more than others. Generally, the more complex the pattern (or the more improbable), the more energy it requires to persist for any significant period of time. An equilibrium is reached between complexity and energy consumption. However, any energetic system tends to destroy itself over time because fuels are indiscriminately reactive in nature - harmless, inert materials don't burn easily - take oxygen, we need it, but it really fucks us over.

Evolutionists don't often seem to mention that reproduction is only the second way life has of renewing itself. Two weeks or so ago, my skin was completely made of different matter. A couple of years ago, my entire body was composed of different materials. I didn't notice though because - Like the axe-blade and the handle - the only thng persistant over time, is the pattern.

Now, why does the body do that..? If reproduction is the be all and end all..? Why doesn't it just cut to the chase..?

Because life, like anything else from rocks to stars, is just another pattern that possesses the inevitable property of persistance.

Life, or rather the differing patterns that fall under that abstract catagorization, reproduce only because there is a limit to how much a complex pattern can do with a single physical representation of itself - given the balance between energy consumption and damage control - before it breaks down completely.

Reproduction is like reformatting - setting the pattern back to it's original error-free version - its factory settings.

Renewal and reproduction are strategies imposed upon complex patterns by the condition of being 'written' in finite matter. Life is like "Oh bloody hell, I've gotta goddamn well knock this body down again and build another. Jeeze. I liked this place. Bloody crappy construction materials, cheap lousy gas." about reproduction. And as for species, that just makes the whole damn business of being 'life' more bloody complicated. A classic case of 'there goes the neighborhood'.

Y'see what I meant about pragmatics..?

On the metaphysic side - the meaning of life is not reproduction, any fool can do that, it's about making useful, happy human beings from the greasey squalling brats that fall out of your wife's fanny. Or vagina, if you're American, rather than just more apathetic moribund consumer-parasites, as is the norm.