Why do I have to inseminate a female? "It ensures more genetic diversity." Why ensure more genetic diversity? "It increases your offspring's chance of survival. Why should I care about that?
There's no direct answer.
Why do I need to continue on this never-ending Assyrian stairwell of life? Because evolutionary means lead to a statistically more likely state of the universe.
Just like when you shuffle a deck of cards, it doesn't get sorted on its own, Just like when you stir a cup of coffee, it doesn't separate into milk and sugar and tea, Just like when you leave a glass of water in a room for an hour, you don't come back only to find the room is freezing cold and the water in the glass boiling, even though there's no laws of physics preventing from happening, is the very reason of my pitiful existence.
If you take 60 balls and number them, there are only 2 ways they can be sorted, or be in an ordered state. But, the number of ways these can be shuffled is larger than the number of atoms in this universe. If you put those balls in a box and shake it, assuming that every arrangement of the balls is equally likely, it is literally, astronomically more likely that you will land in a scrambled state than in one of those two sorted states.
For some reason, the universe, 13.8 Billion years ago, started with very little disorder. And as I have said, as a disordered state is more likely, the disorder of the universe has been increasing ever since.
And as it turns out, life is a very good means to increase this disorder. Sure, it requires some sort of order to exist, but in the long run, it pays off. And though very unlikely, it is possible in the timespan of billions of years that some order emerges just by pure chance. Call it a miracle if you will.
A living thing, capable of moving, eating, and damaging its habitat in the process of its livelihood can cause more disorder than any natural process ever could. And as disorder is more likely, statistically speaking, when the universe finds it out, it will make sure to implement it. Not because it has a will or such, but just because of some basic math almost anyone can understand.
Riding on the same train of thought, what's capable of causing more disorder than a lifeform? Two lifeforms! what's even more capable than that? Three lifeforms! But due to the inclination of the universe towards disorder, this momentary order must cease to exist at some point. Wouldn't it be nice if this order was somehow able to be transferred? Order to disorder releases energy and might use that energy as an instrument to the destruction of this very world. And the path that leads to more chaos is more likely, an otherworldly curse that this universe was doomed with, will make sure that this is the path taken forward.
So they reproduce. Two, then four, then eight, exponentially they go. But Alas, the world they inhabit isn't some infinite paradise with infinite resources. There are only so many things that you can possess at a time or a place. As good or bad it might've been, the world can't give all the life forms a place to live.
So what happens in this situation? Who gets the right to destroy the world?
Of course, the good one is more efficient at it.
So a war of dominance starts. Who is more capable of the destruction of this world more efficiently, who can cause more chaos in the long run, and who can harness the energy derived from the destruction of its world more effectively to again, make this world more disordered.
So the lifeform evolves. Evolves to be a better destroyer, of this world and other life forms as well. It evolves into several life forms, occupying different spaces, and focusing on different aspects of causing more chaos. Not due to some mysterious task it was assigned, but because chaos is a more likely outcome. Its life objective (if we can call it that) has morphed so much that it becomes easy to miss what it came from. Nonetheless, its way forward remains the same.
It gets better in its universal mission over time. It gets tired of harnessing energy through the destruction of the world directly. What if it can leech on the other lifeforms that will do the dirty work for it? Of all the energy derived from biophysical processes put in use by the life forms, 90% of this becomes unusable and dissipated in the universe contributing to increasing its disorder. If it can latch on to that 10%, it can increase chaos in the world with 99% efficiency! and given the twisted fate with which this universe was doomed, it can't help but favor this great destructor.
So it hunts. Causing more destruction, through its actions and through the destruction of other life forms. It forms groups, which give it protection to wreak havoc for longer and to increase the scale of its ability to cause more chaos.
But soon it faces the same problem it faced previously, resources are finite, and not everyone can get the chance to be the great destructor.
So they compete. Who can cause more harm and can pass this momentary order to cause more disorder down the line. The universe, blindly due to its fate, creates a field for this to happen. A "fit" or powerful lifeform is more capable of causing chaos, it favors that. Its DNA is simple whose existence after a lot of iteration is unlikely. So the likely thing happens. It mutates, and it evolves. Unfit ones get eliminated not because of some intervention, but due to simple statistical likelihood. The one with a higher probability of dominance will dominate in the long run. That's the basic rule of probability and it can't get any simpler than that.
How its DNA can be more chaotic, ensuring diversity/disorder while still being functional? It can mix two life forms' DNA together. Natural processes will cause 1-2 mutations per generation, mixing DNA will shuffle it even more uniformly. That's a huge leap toward more chaos and the universe doesn't forget to incentivize it. It makes this act pleasurable and hardwires the life form into thinking it's the only purpose it got. The lifeform is unaware of its ramifications, and its role as the bandwagon of the universe's slow but sure march towards its demise.
Society is created. Agriculture is invented so that it can cause destruction more effectively. Two sexes are formed with dimorphism and different roles for the mixing of the genes.
Still, the limitation prevails. The blind march toward more chaos, more uniformity at a higher, ever higher scale continues. But the world can't allow it. So they compete. One half of them fights over the other half, who gets to get the 'divine' privilege to be the instrument of more destruction, an instrument to be part of the grand fate of the universe's self-righteous suicide. The other half devotes themselves to presenting themselves as more fitting to be the vessel of future instruments of destruction. They choose their counterpart, by whom they want to be inseminated. They look for traits that would ensure this open secret goal or fate of this universe.
They look for physical appearance. They look for wealth. They look for status. They look for the guarantee that they and their offspring will be safe.
Even though this probabilistic yet random march toward oblivion has given rise to sentience, it is not free from the shackles of the ultimate goal of this universe. This sentience, again, is not some cosmic gift, rather it is also a part of this bigger goal. A life form acquired with the faculty of reasoning can cause the rise of entropy even more rapidly and use the energy, the life force of its universe to cause more harm more effectively. Even though it's not a gift, it can well be a curse. A curse of being aware of its shackles, but without the capability to be free from it. Because that won't contribute to the fate of the universe, which makes it unlikely, unlikely enough that the only instance of known life from reaching up to this point is not free of it.
However, no matter how intricate the final shape might be, no matter how far the life form has come from its initial stage, the fact remains. It's a result of random occurring, synchronizing in this supposed grand orchestra just because disorder is more likely than order. The universe doesn't care, it can't care about the other sides of the decision it took to reach here, the ramifications of those decisions in the long run which don't link to the grand fate of it. Everything is just by chance, after all.
Evolution makes sure that the life form prioritizes sex, its unquenchable thirst to inseminate or be inseminated by the perfect one for the grand goal; but, if seen from an outside point of view, assuming we are even able to do it in the first place, this insemination is a disgusting and repulsive procedure, to say the least.
Why anything would want to put a sticky fluid it produces in a wrinkled, ugly-looking skin pouch into something else? In which else context two crumbled dirty pieces of meat and their aniline smell would be desirable, even the thought of it? Why would it want to associate its mouth with one of the dirtiest parts of another organism, with the part it urinates and defecates? Why would a life form capable of and boastful about knowing and learning about the universe, would surrender itself, its vulnerability in front of another life form?
What makes sex even uglier than it already is, is its impact on every other aspect of life. Sex is the manifestation of the grand goal of the universe, no wonder it's normal to feel accomplished due to the lack of it. Evolution cared enough to make it the most important thing to the life form but didn't care about the ones who would fail in the pursuit. Evolution only cared about the best of the best instruments of destruction, it's the thing that matters after all. All the rejects are to be doomed to oblivion. No solace for them, no alternates for them. That would be just a waste of energy, used on things outside the scope of its goal. This grand orchestra of random events has no place for them.
What could be more tragic than the life form that is aware of its condition, well aware of its suffering, its surroundings, aware that the reason for this grand buildup to this disappointing failure boils down to something so trivial? All of its hardship is because seven is the most likely outcome when two dice are rolled. For the same reason for which, the "house always wins." For the trivial fact that the larger number's quotient will be larger provided that the numbers are divided by the same number.
This play of billions of years, the formation of Galaxies, Stars, Planets, and life forms, taking it to the forefront of everything, only to disappoint it, convince it that this goal is the biggest, the true meaning of its existence, only to throw it aside. When it's not some cosmic play, it's not some grand plan towards anything but an inevitable march towards destruction, about which the universe itself is none the wiser. The only thing it's capable of doing is carrying out some random transitions between different quantum states, following a single rule, which can be described with just these 19 mathematical symbols.
a > b ⇒ a/c > b/c
∀ a, b, c ∈ ℕ
That's it. Manifestation of these 19 symbols convinced it that it matters, manifestation of these 19 symbols also caused it to be a failure. Manifestation of these 19 symbols forced it to the chase, which also left no place for it to find solace. Manifestation of these 19 symbols provided the mental faculty to conceive it as trivial, painfully obvious yet, also kept no means for it to free itself from its Shackles. These 19 symbols show what it is, its power, and what it can do starting from nothing, it also shows that it is nothing, all it can do is to lead the universe towards its demise, just more efficiently.
It knows these, but can't do anything, because it itself is a manifestation of these 19 symbols.
If that's not tragic and absurd, I don't know what is.
There's no direct answer.
Why do I need to continue on this never-ending Assyrian stairwell of life? Because evolutionary means lead to a statistically more likely state of the universe.
Just like when you shuffle a deck of cards, it doesn't get sorted on its own, Just like when you stir a cup of coffee, it doesn't separate into milk and sugar and tea, Just like when you leave a glass of water in a room for an hour, you don't come back only to find the room is freezing cold and the water in the glass boiling, even though there's no laws of physics preventing from happening, is the very reason of my pitiful existence.
If you take 60 balls and number them, there are only 2 ways they can be sorted, or be in an ordered state. But, the number of ways these can be shuffled is larger than the number of atoms in this universe. If you put those balls in a box and shake it, assuming that every arrangement of the balls is equally likely, it is literally, astronomically more likely that you will land in a scrambled state than in one of those two sorted states.
For some reason, the universe, 13.8 Billion years ago, started with very little disorder. And as I have said, as a disordered state is more likely, the disorder of the universe has been increasing ever since.
And as it turns out, life is a very good means to increase this disorder. Sure, it requires some sort of order to exist, but in the long run, it pays off. And though very unlikely, it is possible in the timespan of billions of years that some order emerges just by pure chance. Call it a miracle if you will.
A living thing, capable of moving, eating, and damaging its habitat in the process of its livelihood can cause more disorder than any natural process ever could. And as disorder is more likely, statistically speaking, when the universe finds it out, it will make sure to implement it. Not because it has a will or such, but just because of some basic math almost anyone can understand.
Riding on the same train of thought, what's capable of causing more disorder than a lifeform? Two lifeforms! what's even more capable than that? Three lifeforms! But due to the inclination of the universe towards disorder, this momentary order must cease to exist at some point. Wouldn't it be nice if this order was somehow able to be transferred? Order to disorder releases energy and might use that energy as an instrument to the destruction of this very world. And the path that leads to more chaos is more likely, an otherworldly curse that this universe was doomed with, will make sure that this is the path taken forward.
So they reproduce. Two, then four, then eight, exponentially they go. But Alas, the world they inhabit isn't some infinite paradise with infinite resources. There are only so many things that you can possess at a time or a place. As good or bad it might've been, the world can't give all the life forms a place to live.
So what happens in this situation? Who gets the right to destroy the world?
Of course, the good one is more efficient at it.
So a war of dominance starts. Who is more capable of the destruction of this world more efficiently, who can cause more chaos in the long run, and who can harness the energy derived from the destruction of its world more effectively to again, make this world more disordered.
So the lifeform evolves. Evolves to be a better destroyer, of this world and other life forms as well. It evolves into several life forms, occupying different spaces, and focusing on different aspects of causing more chaos. Not due to some mysterious task it was assigned, but because chaos is a more likely outcome. Its life objective (if we can call it that) has morphed so much that it becomes easy to miss what it came from. Nonetheless, its way forward remains the same.
It gets better in its universal mission over time. It gets tired of harnessing energy through the destruction of the world directly. What if it can leech on the other lifeforms that will do the dirty work for it? Of all the energy derived from biophysical processes put in use by the life forms, 90% of this becomes unusable and dissipated in the universe contributing to increasing its disorder. If it can latch on to that 10%, it can increase chaos in the world with 99% efficiency! and given the twisted fate with which this universe was doomed, it can't help but favor this great destructor.
So it hunts. Causing more destruction, through its actions and through the destruction of other life forms. It forms groups, which give it protection to wreak havoc for longer and to increase the scale of its ability to cause more chaos.
But soon it faces the same problem it faced previously, resources are finite, and not everyone can get the chance to be the great destructor.
So they compete. Who can cause more harm and can pass this momentary order to cause more disorder down the line. The universe, blindly due to its fate, creates a field for this to happen. A "fit" or powerful lifeform is more capable of causing chaos, it favors that. Its DNA is simple whose existence after a lot of iteration is unlikely. So the likely thing happens. It mutates, and it evolves. Unfit ones get eliminated not because of some intervention, but due to simple statistical likelihood. The one with a higher probability of dominance will dominate in the long run. That's the basic rule of probability and it can't get any simpler than that.
How its DNA can be more chaotic, ensuring diversity/disorder while still being functional? It can mix two life forms' DNA together. Natural processes will cause 1-2 mutations per generation, mixing DNA will shuffle it even more uniformly. That's a huge leap toward more chaos and the universe doesn't forget to incentivize it. It makes this act pleasurable and hardwires the life form into thinking it's the only purpose it got. The lifeform is unaware of its ramifications, and its role as the bandwagon of the universe's slow but sure march towards its demise.
Society is created. Agriculture is invented so that it can cause destruction more effectively. Two sexes are formed with dimorphism and different roles for the mixing of the genes.
Still, the limitation prevails. The blind march toward more chaos, more uniformity at a higher, ever higher scale continues. But the world can't allow it. So they compete. One half of them fights over the other half, who gets to get the 'divine' privilege to be the instrument of more destruction, an instrument to be part of the grand fate of the universe's self-righteous suicide. The other half devotes themselves to presenting themselves as more fitting to be the vessel of future instruments of destruction. They choose their counterpart, by whom they want to be inseminated. They look for traits that would ensure this open secret goal or fate of this universe.
They look for physical appearance. They look for wealth. They look for status. They look for the guarantee that they and their offspring will be safe.
Even though this probabilistic yet random march toward oblivion has given rise to sentience, it is not free from the shackles of the ultimate goal of this universe. This sentience, again, is not some cosmic gift, rather it is also a part of this bigger goal. A life form acquired with the faculty of reasoning can cause the rise of entropy even more rapidly and use the energy, the life force of its universe to cause more harm more effectively. Even though it's not a gift, it can well be a curse. A curse of being aware of its shackles, but without the capability to be free from it. Because that won't contribute to the fate of the universe, which makes it unlikely, unlikely enough that the only instance of known life from reaching up to this point is not free of it.
However, no matter how intricate the final shape might be, no matter how far the life form has come from its initial stage, the fact remains. It's a result of random occurring, synchronizing in this supposed grand orchestra just because disorder is more likely than order. The universe doesn't care, it can't care about the other sides of the decision it took to reach here, the ramifications of those decisions in the long run which don't link to the grand fate of it. Everything is just by chance, after all.
Evolution makes sure that the life form prioritizes sex, its unquenchable thirst to inseminate or be inseminated by the perfect one for the grand goal; but, if seen from an outside point of view, assuming we are even able to do it in the first place, this insemination is a disgusting and repulsive procedure, to say the least.
Why anything would want to put a sticky fluid it produces in a wrinkled, ugly-looking skin pouch into something else? In which else context two crumbled dirty pieces of meat and their aniline smell would be desirable, even the thought of it? Why would it want to associate its mouth with one of the dirtiest parts of another organism, with the part it urinates and defecates? Why would a life form capable of and boastful about knowing and learning about the universe, would surrender itself, its vulnerability in front of another life form?
What makes sex even uglier than it already is, is its impact on every other aspect of life. Sex is the manifestation of the grand goal of the universe, no wonder it's normal to feel accomplished due to the lack of it. Evolution cared enough to make it the most important thing to the life form but didn't care about the ones who would fail in the pursuit. Evolution only cared about the best of the best instruments of destruction, it's the thing that matters after all. All the rejects are to be doomed to oblivion. No solace for them, no alternates for them. That would be just a waste of energy, used on things outside the scope of its goal. This grand orchestra of random events has no place for them.
What could be more tragic than the life form that is aware of its condition, well aware of its suffering, its surroundings, aware that the reason for this grand buildup to this disappointing failure boils down to something so trivial? All of its hardship is because seven is the most likely outcome when two dice are rolled. For the same reason for which, the "house always wins." For the trivial fact that the larger number's quotient will be larger provided that the numbers are divided by the same number.
This play of billions of years, the formation of Galaxies, Stars, Planets, and life forms, taking it to the forefront of everything, only to disappoint it, convince it that this goal is the biggest, the true meaning of its existence, only to throw it aside. When it's not some cosmic play, it's not some grand plan towards anything but an inevitable march towards destruction, about which the universe itself is none the wiser. The only thing it's capable of doing is carrying out some random transitions between different quantum states, following a single rule, which can be described with just these 19 mathematical symbols.
a > b ⇒ a/c > b/c
∀ a, b, c ∈ ℕ
That's it. Manifestation of these 19 symbols convinced it that it matters, manifestation of these 19 symbols also caused it to be a failure. Manifestation of these 19 symbols forced it to the chase, which also left no place for it to find solace. Manifestation of these 19 symbols provided the mental faculty to conceive it as trivial, painfully obvious yet, also kept no means for it to free itself from its Shackles. These 19 symbols show what it is, its power, and what it can do starting from nothing, it also shows that it is nothing, all it can do is to lead the universe towards its demise, just more efficiently.
It knows these, but can't do anything, because it itself is a manifestation of these 19 symbols.
If that's not tragic and absurd, I don't know what is.
