Wooooo! Let's listen to some of the abstract thoughts that pass through Ripple's head! :D
So, occasionally weird, philosophical questions find their way into my brain, and they keep bugging me and driving me crazy, and I can't stop thinking about them until my head explodes.
So, here's the latest question that's been annoying me:
Why is an animal's instinct to survive, to reproduce, and to continue the population?
Think of a butterfly. It spends most of its existence in the form of a caterpillar. As a caterpillar, its purpose it to grow, to eat, and to survive, so that it can become a butterfly. When it becomes a butterfly, it only has a few days left to live. It spends those few days finding a mate, and laying its eggs. When that is done, it dies.
So, the purpose of that butterflies existence has, essentially, been to bring more butterflies into existence. The purpose of those butterflies will also be to create more butterflies. So obviously, their instinct is to continue the population; but why? These butterflies serve no ultimate purpose. They're not trying to make the population grow for any particular reason, they just do.
This is the how it is for almost every species, excluding, perhaps, humans.
Isn't this like...a machine that's sole purpose is to keep itself running?
Doesn't that make all life meaningless?
I'd like to hear your opinion about this, I'm curious to see what other people think. Maybe it'll stop the question from bothering me so much. :)
Well, that's really all I have to say for now. I know this was weird, and short, but oh well. xD
Thank you for reading. :3
~Ripple
So, here's the latest question that's been annoying me:
Why is an animal's instinct to survive, to reproduce, and to continue the population?
Think of a butterfly. It spends most of its existence in the form of a caterpillar. As a caterpillar, its purpose it to grow, to eat, and to survive, so that it can become a butterfly. When it becomes a butterfly, it only has a few days left to live. It spends those few days finding a mate, and laying its eggs. When that is done, it dies.
So, the purpose of that butterflies existence has, essentially, been to bring more butterflies into existence. The purpose of those butterflies will also be to create more butterflies. So obviously, their instinct is to continue the population; but why? These butterflies serve no ultimate purpose. They're not trying to make the population grow for any particular reason, they just do.
This is the how it is for almost every species, excluding, perhaps, humans.
Isn't this like...a machine that's sole purpose is to keep itself running?
Doesn't that make all life meaningless?
I'd like to hear your opinion about this, I'm curious to see what other people think. Maybe it'll stop the question from bothering me so much. :)
Well, that's really all I have to say for now. I know this was weird, and short, but oh well. xD
Thank you for reading. :3
~Ripple
14 Comments
Maybe it's because animals don't have a free-will they just feel compelled to do that. Or maybe it's because they don't have a soul. Hmm. . .
Good thoughts by the way.
Mhmm, but I wonder why they feel compelled to survive.
Anyway, thank you. :)
Not meaningless! All animals keep nature in balans (unless their is over/underpopulation). I don't know much about insects, but mammals have emotions, though they are mostly based on instinct. An elephant, for example, can have dreams. It's been proven that baby elephants who saw their mother die before they got captured often have nightmares and will eventually become agressive. And we all know about monkeys...! We consider them primitive, but who knows! Great thinking, though.
Haha, thank you. :) But like you said, all animals keep nature in balance.
Think of nature as being the machine as a whole, and every animal and plant is a part of the machine, that works to keep every other part turning. That doesn't contradict what you said.
Also, I've heard that elephants have been known to avoid places where other elephants have died. I haven't heard that they have nightmares, though. That's really interesting. :)
And I'm not really saying I don't think of animals as being more than machines. But just like humans have instincts to duck, run or scream when there is danger (which is also part of the survival instinct) all animals instinctively want to survive and continue their population. I am including humans in this, sort of. But we also make other significant goals for ourselves, so survival isn't our only purpose.
You're welcome. XD I often wonder the same, but then I realize...Why should I be a party pooper? I'm entertaining myself just fine! XD I do understand what you mean, though. I mean, what are we in the big scheme of things. What is the big scheme of things? Oh, there I go again.
That really got me thinking, and I'll ponder that fir the rest of the day, whether its just a machine who's sole purpose is to keep itself running. I really enjoyed this, good Job!
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
interesting thoughts, but I am honestly havin a blank day today, so I will not be of much help.
Haha, that's okay. I don't really use brain power when I think about these things, they just drift into my head and make me confused. :P
But what if one day the butterflies lost their will to survive and reproduce? There would be no butterflies left. So it only makes sense they would want to reproduce. They don't have a very long life span so they don't really have time for much else. And honestly, what COULD they do other than that?
... Then again, maybe nature inspired us to build machines... Does this remind anyone else of the Matrix??? O_o
It's an animal's instinct to survive because that instinct is passed down to it genetically. Any animal with the instinct to not survive doesn't reproduce and pass on it's genes and the animals the do want to survive do pass on it's genes. That means that millions of years down the line, we only observe the animals with survival instinct because they're the only ones left. It's just simple evolution. Essentially it's like this: being alive is just a by-product of wanting to stay alive.
Animals know a lot more than we think they do. They have connections with different things that humans wouldn't understand. I believe that a humans only instinct is to grow. Grow mentaly, phisicly, until there is no more room to grow. Humans strive to maintain their place at the top of the food chain. Humans strive for power. This is why the animals strive to keep them selves alive, to keep their spicies(sp?) alive. They know how the humans work, and they know they can't fight it. It's sad, rly.
everything living has a desire to preserve its own life and maybe that's why things reproduce so there can be more living things but that would also imply that the theory of reincarnation was true