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SURVIVAL

                                        November 3, 2002

It's tempting to try to base
a universal ethics on the need
for human survival.                 Ayn Rand went in
                                    that direction.
  This seems promising                                     And maybe
  because most human                   All that stuff      Heinlein,
  beings are interested                about A=A, non-     too? I don't
  in survival, and                     contradiction,      remember the
  individual survival                  and so on,          argument in
  usually depends on                   seems to be         "Starship
  group survival.                      just be about       Troopers"
                                       recognizing         that well.
  Practically, you need                that you need
  to argue from this                   certain things          There was
  kind of common                       to live.                that stuff
  interest to form                                             about using
  coalitions in order                     That is,             symbolic
  to do anything.                         freedom,             logic to
                                          specifically         prove moral
                                          the freedom of       issues...
      But it just doesn't                 The Great,
      hold up as a                        because their
      philosophical                       efforts make
      center...                           your life
                                          possible.
         It's not that                                   Hiding from
         difficult to                                    this truth is
         construct                                       derided as
         scenarios where                                 suicidal.
         survival seems      HAPPY_BREED
         pointless.
                                 IRONTHORN

         Survival is a
         prerequisite for
         most things we
         might desire,
         but it isn't the
         fundamental
         motivation.


   In extreme cases we're
   willing to risk our              "Give me liberty or
   survival for things that          give me death."
   are more important.

       We don't just live
       to live, we need
       something else to               You can say the same
       live for.                       thing about "liberty":
                                       Liberty for what?

 Living for the sake                           Freedom means you're
 of others just pushes                         not going to let
 the problem around.                           someone else decide
                                               the purpose of your
 If the "others" are just                      existence... it's
 leading a miserable life,                     not an end in itself.
 why would helping them
 survive be a worthy goal,                         "Live to be free"
 something to justify your                         Doesn't work either.
 own misery?


     So.

     What's the *real* answer?

     The purpose of human existence is...

           Art
                and/or
                         Games

                                               GAMES
        Those being the two classes
        of human activity that
        have nothing to do with
        human survival.


                            Possible alternate
                            answer:  Style.            Still
                                                       another:
                                                       Ritual


   But it could be argued:

     Art is not useless,
     art is the not-obviously-useful.

     Game playing is often justified
     as having value as education or
     exercise.

     Style is always part of the Signal,
     and it is not clear that it is
     always the useless part.


          Does usefulness contaminate,
          make something less useful
          as a motive center?


                   Is it possible to evaluate
                   art/games/style?

                       Is it possible
                       for art to be bad art,
                       for a game to be a stupid game,
                       for style to be
                       too obvious, too formulaic?





                       Live not to create art,
                       but to create good art.



                       A life dedicated to pointless art
                       would seem no less pointless.



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