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The purpose of human existence
Random thoughts constituting a working paper by Shinsei (Roger Sheldon)
   
"We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibres connect us with our fellow man; and along those fibres, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects."
 

Herman Melville
   
The finer part of mankind will, in all likelihood, never perish – they will migrate from sun to sun as they go out…    
 

Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, Russian scientist
   
"After a thousand billion billion billion years, we witness the decay of matter itself.  Dead stars evaporate.  There is nothing remaining in the universe but huge black holes surrounded by a thin cloud of electrons, positrons and neutrinos.  This is surely the end of things.  So we begin the long trek home, to the brief, glorious morning of the universe."  Stephen Baxter.
   
   
Introduction
   
Please don't assume that I regard myself as an expert on a subject as deep or profound as is the purpose of existence.  However, what I do believe is that each one of us humans has the capacity to reflect and therefore should ponder such matters.  What I have to relate here are merely my own, as always, simplistic thoughts.  However, simplicity never invalidated anything...
   
   
The future of humankind
   
Learning and going forward as a species
   
There's a paradox called Fermi's Paradox, which states that, if there is intelligent life in the universe, it should already be everywhere.  In other words, statistically we should have been contacted or should have made contact.  At least we should have encountered powerful clues and signs of life.  But the universe is singularly silent.  Despite my sense that the chances are infinitesimally small, the fact is that we could be the only life in the universe.  Given that fact, we are very, very special and unique and maybe we carry some kind of responsibility to think about perpetuating life. 
   
We are told that all life on our planet will one day become extinct.  In the short term, maybe tomorrow, this could happen as the result of some catastrophic collision with an asteroid or comet.  In the longer term, some ten milliard years hence, this may happen as the result of the sun coming to the end of its life.  Even if we still somehow managed to survive those events, we can look forward to an 'impending' collision between our own galaxy and that in Andromeda some three thousand million years hence.  Ultimately, in some twenty milliard milliard years, the universe itself will become extinct, so we are told, whether through the process of ongoing expansion or as a result of contraction and implosion, or yet something else - who knows?
   
In terms of you and I in the moment, perhaps these impending catastrophes are of no great consequence, and even if they were, it might seem that there is nothing that can be done about it.  In terms of humanity and its evolution as a whole, the future looks gloomy.  So why are we here?  What is the point?
   
There are a number of ways we can view the purpose of our existence.  Either we can recognise that the fact we are here at all is simply the result of a remarkable accident, and that we should hedonistically enjoy our relatively brief existence while it lasts.  Alternatively we can seek to do something about the future of humankind as a species, and maybe even the Universe.  Perhaps best of all we can do both simultaneously.
   
We are all born of stardust, and are a part of the universe, not apart from it.  I believe that we are in fact, the Universe in the process of creating the facility to think about and for itself.  We, and any other sentient beings in the universe, have this ultimate capacity to shape its future. 
   
I regard the scientific community on Earth as being vitally important in terms of humankind's long term goals.  If we are to survive as a species, we are obliged to pursue a vigorous and earnest programme of education, technological research and development, space exploration and scientific discovery beyond our wildest dreams.  To this end, it could be argued that the social needs of our species must of necessity come second and that all other sections of society should exist merely to facilitate and support technological advancement.  However, there is also balance in the great scheme of things and it will be through the creation of collective harmony that we can establish the stability to further our scientific understanding and aims.
   
Given the technological capability we may yet be able to foresee and redirect the approaching asteroid or comet, maybe even discover the secret of travel to alternative stars before our own dies.  I believe that humans have the capacity to influence the ultimate fate of the universe - but only if we pursue technological advancement relentlessly.  Why have we evolved into thinking reasoning humans?  Is this really a series of accidents in nature?  We are pulling ourselves forwards out of ignorance and barbarism towards an ultimate goal and have barely scratched the surface - the scratch is almost imperceptible.  Is this not our destiny? - to move ever forwards, or will we be knocked back time and again by our own stupidity or the fickle whims of nature?  The SETI programme continues to search - are we alone or is the universe teeming with life forms all possessed of the capacity to change the ultimate fate of all that exists?  I do not believe that we are alone, I do not believe that we are the most advanced of living things.  I am too  humble to suppose we could be the most advanced organism in the universe, especially when I see what terrible things we are capable of.  Some would have us believe that if intelligent life existed we would already know about it, therefore we must be alone.  I think maybe they don't want to communicate with us yet, I don't think we are nearly ready for such an encounter.  No matter, there is always a sense of forward momentum.  If we ever reached a point where we understood all there was to understand, would we not have become Gods?  Has he been created already, and we are mere playthings - another of a million million backwater attempts by nature to protect itself from inevitable doom?
   
I see humankind as just one attempt - maybe one of a myriad attempts throughout the universe - by the universe to protect itself.  We are just beginning to understand how we can control our own evolution.  This is the beginning of the Universe organising itself with deliberation.  It was the Minoans who said, "Man will never conquer nature.", however...   There is a sense that evolution does not have a plan.  It is mere survival of the fittest.  There have been at least seventeen branches of humanoids – we are the only surviving species.  It is interesting that while evolution may not have design, the effect is the same - an inexorable movement towards some higher state which seems to me to be quite as good as having a plan, maybe even better, for plans have a habit of going awry. 
 
I see humankind as using the Moon as a jumping off platform for tera-forming and colonizing Mars and maybe even Venus.  I visualize the sending of pioneer robot craft to other stars looking for planetary systems that will ultimately support human life.  I see humans spreading throughout the galaxy and populating hundreds of habitable planets.  I see us making contact with other species in the universe and learning to cohabit with them as we are learning to cohabit with our own species on Earth in a microcosmic way.  We have ten milliard years to find alternative planetary systems that we can populate before our own sun dies - that's a long time.  Looking into the most distant future, beyond my ability to visualise but the most simplistic of scenarios, as the Milky Way itself falls into decay and dies I perceive humans as evolving into a species quite unlike anything we have ever experienced, creating habitable environments, maybe in artificially constructed 'planets' drawing on meagre energy supplies from dying suns.  I believe that even in the final death throes of the Universe (as we know it), we humans could have developed the technology to draw on the energy of the expansion of space-time itself for there can be no end to energy even if it is transmuted countless times o'er the aeons.  Is it possible in these unimaginable distant times that we could even discover other primeval atoms and make use of them?  Am I living in cuckoo land, will that asteroid obliterate us tomorrow?  I feel we are living a remarkably precarious existence at the moment with absolutely no back up...
 
I believe that it is our duty, our destiny, to pursue technological advancement towards an end that is totally beyond my capacity to imagine.  I believe that there is some 'purpose' or 'design' behind existence...  if you want to perceive that 'purpose' as some totally random process, I don't see that actually makes a jot of difference ultimately - 'tis the same difference in my book.  But we humans have been blessed with a significant trait - the will to survive...
   
The here and now
   
While reflecting upon humankind in the future, I have also thought about the here and now.
   
Each person influences others, either for good or bad.  It is our choice whether we embrace such influence, depending upon our ability to perceive what message is being given and our ability to resist or accept according to assessment.  We can absorb the spirit of a person, particularly those very close to us.  In death that person lives on in us as a memory and as thoughts, feelings and actions that we make as a result of knowing that person and wanting to emulate and preserve what they stood for.  This is the spirit of the single organism called humanity - not a new idea, the ancient Greeks pondered this too.  Thus – Lovelock's Gaia.
   
Our existence hangs by an almost imperceptible thread – dinosaurs spent 150 million years on this planet – humankind a mere 3 million, and humans as we know them today have been in existence for maybe a mere 50,000 years at the time of writing and until archaeological research pushes the time scale back yet further... 
   
I believe that what we do in life echoes though all eternity.  We only have one life, once chance to get it right.  I do not work on the assumption that I will have a second chance, that I will live again - that is, beyond my acceptance that the substance that is each one of us will ultimately go back into the universal energy pool to be recycled again in the creation of other things.  I don't think this life is a rehearsal or practise run, the life I am in now is the reality.  If I want to achieve something  I need to do it now.  What can each one of us do in our lives to make the lot of humanity better?  How can we leave a permanent mark or influence?
   
Maybe we should reflect upon what has occurred before historically, in the cumulative understanding that has come down to us from the progenitors of our species and culture.  Being innovative and creative, basing our understanding upon a study of the past and through scrutiny of the old.  By understanding what has happened before, we can begin to perceive what may happen in the future.  Collective consciousness – humans as a species going forwards building upon the achievements of those who went before – historical precedent...
   
Maybe we should seriously reflect upon creating ripples around us.  That is, influencing others in good and positive ways - ways that will enhance the lot of those who come after us.  Ripples can be created breadth-wise as in our influence upon those around us in the here and now, and length-wise or forward-wise in time as in our influence upon our children, propagated forwards through following generations, the things we do that leaves a concrete mark as in writings, constructions, oral transmissions etc.  Individual input creates ripples – thus furthering human aims or evolution – inexorable progress...  The ripples created, live in those touched by a person and are passed on outwards to others and forwards through subsequent generations.  Some of us, such as young children who contract some awful disease and die, or who die through some terrible accident never get the opportunity to create ripples with mature deliberation, yet by their very existence they have created ripples nevertheless in the love they generated within those close to them.  Such love energy is very powerful and long lasting.  Some of us create ripples only within our immediate families and therefore on a longitudinal line.  Others still, the altruistics, create ripples outwards and forwards.  Some, the selfish, take or destroy.  Our aim must be to create outward and forward ripples - to have good affect upon those in the here and now and those who follow after us.
   
Despite the fact we are heavily influenced by genes and culture, an urgent purpose of existence in the here and now must be to first learn to live with others of our species in a peaceful and harmonious way, recognising that the things that cause conflict between people or nations and their ideals, cultures, religions, and philosophies are mere windows of human perception.  - The importance and value we place upon these things is no more than a matter of opinion.  Everyone has their own truth.  Humans are predisposed towards a want to live comfortably and happily.  To deny another or others that opportunity and ideal is to deny a fundamental right and is inherently wrong.  We should seek to learn such a depth of sensitivity and awareness of inter-personal dynamics that it becomes possible to deal with conflict situations even before they occur.  The natural laws of justice demand that we prevent other human beings from being unjust – even if that ultimately necessitates the use of force.  That is, force in the moment to prevent violation rather than as an act of retribution.  This is to act naturally in response to a negative, dysfunctional or violent first cause action that has hurtful impact upon others. 
   
We human beings should recognise a fundamental truth - that no belief or act is necessarily wrong if it does not impinge upon the rights of others.  To force a belief system upon other human beings is inherently wrong, to expect other human beings to share our own belief systems is misguided.  Once we recognise that we can all share different beliefs, and recognise that those beliefs exist on a continuum betwixt one belief and another, then conflict ceases to exist.  Truth is not fixed.  What I believe today may not be what I believe tomorrow, what is reality for me today may change radically within moments.  This is the process of personal development and evolution.  Again, it is no one's right to dictate to others what the culmination of that developmental process may be.  What an ultimate truth is for one person, need not be so for any other.  A belief system and way of being is as personal as the nature of one's finger prints and DNA.  Why do we human beings resolutely fail to recognise such a blindingly simple fact?
   
In cold reality there is no such thing as good or evil, these qualities exist only as part of the human condition.  Nevertheless, the ethic of goodness, that quality which embraces being altruistically supportive of, and agreeable to all others goes into the collective mind pool, maybe even gene pool.  In nature, good and evil interplay equally and at random, for evolution, we are told, has no specific goal, even if it does seem to represent advancement.  It is only through our collective effort that good can ultimately hope to overcome evil…  fortunately, humans for the most part ARE good, despite having our seemingly frequent lapses.  Maybe there are genes for being human, and genes for violence, crime, and even gossip behind another's back...
   

As for the egotistical quest for fame, it doesn’t matter if we go forward nameless, for we are a part of the whole – it is the effect of our presence while we are here and the effect upon those who follow in our footsteps that matters, not whether we are remembered by name for what we have left behind for others.
   

Shinsei