The only reason life, and in particular, intelligence, seems so special and wonderful is because we only have one example of it. The moment we find other versions of either, the whole idea of uniqueness, and consequently, importance, comes crashing down. There is only one Mankind, so we speak of it in reverent tones as if it really mattered. On the other hand, we gleefully slaughter men by the millions because there are so many of them. My own personal life (me, myself, etc) is of infinite value to me because it's the only one I've got.
There is a scientist who has found a way of cheaply synthesizing rubies which are indistinguishable from natural ones, she has to deliberately introduce impurities into them so that the jewelry business will not suffer from cheap competition. Why does a real painting by a great master fetch a market price of millions while a copy, indistinguishable except by highly trained specialists using sophisticated equipment, is cheap? Why do people treasure antiques when the ground is littered with beautiful stones and fossils millions of years old? Value is a strictly subjective concept.
If there is no other life in the Universe, and if there is no other intelligent life, then we are truly special. But even if this is true, we may never know it for sure. You can prove there is other life or intelligence by simply finding it. But not finding it is not certain proof it does not exist. It could always be just around the next corner.
Space/Science » in reply to Science and the soul: Descartes loses force
Whatever the market will bear
The whole thread (45 posts)
- Science and the soul: Descartes loses force
- re: Science and the soul
- We are significant. We are rare, thinking, matter.
- Muddle-headed philosophy
- Narrow field scope
- re: Science and the soul: Descartes loses force
- Whatever the market will bear
- What Francis Crick called Biochemical Theology
- Welcome back. The "spark of life".