The goal of life 生命的目標

The goal of life

Author :Kai-Chi Chang

Here we are not talking about "the purpose of life" or "the meaning of life". There is a difference in meaning that is easy to be vague and misunderstood;

Assuming we are talking "the purpose of life" is, it is about the final result of life.

Assuming we are talking about "the meaning of life" seems to be talking about the true essence of life.

And "the goal of life" is relatively short-stage and can be divided into stages;

Regardless of whether there is a "life" in a planet or a galaxy other than the Earth, assuming that there is indeed an alien life, it can still be applied to most of them.

For all life in the earth, the first important thing is “to be alive”.

Don’t ask why.  Almost all the lives will not ask this question.  It can be said that all the creatures are fighting for “to be alive”, without exception. regardless how hard it is.

So what is the goal of "to be alive"?

Foraging?

Any form of "foraging", whether it is herbivore, meat, omnivorous, parasitic, symbiotic, etc., is just a means of maintaining one's own life, but it is not a real goal.

As a result, the real goal is to mate and breed. Whether it is sexual reproduction or asexual reproduction, fissiparity or heterosexual mating, the ultimate result is to reproduce the species.

Since “to be alive” and foraging are only for Reproduction of offspring, then the generations continue to proliferate one after another. What is the ultimate goal?

Modern biology tells us the answer full of rationality and Disenchantment: evolution.

The evolution of living things has an absolute relationship with the environment in which they live. Therefore, as long as it can survive, this kind of species can remain unchanged for millions of millions of years, becoming a so-called "living fossil".  Once it is not suitable for the environment, it must change to survive. These changes could be gradual or mutation. In order to survive, Life is so adapted to the local conditions through the way of reproduction, and therefore, that is why there is such a rich diversity of creatures in the Earth today.

We can assume that if the living environment lasts for hundreds of thousands of years, then what will life be like?

Nature does not need to change, but creatures are limited by the limited life of the body. So the survival of the species continues through generations of generations.

However, in fact, this is impossible. Earth, as a planet, is not yet fully stable, and is still undergoing dramatic changes. It is almost impossible for all living creatures stay same without evolution.

However, evolution is still only a process or a way of seeking for survival. It is still not an end or a goal.

On this ever-changing earth, all the living creatures are seeking evolution ways to survival. Not only must they adapt the different terrain, climate, humidity, sunlight, moisture, air, etc., but also they need compete with other kinds of creatures and even similar creatures. The so-called the “weakest goes to the wall”, the survival of the fittest.

Therefore, it can be said that all creatures in the Earth are striving for the most suitable and most favorable living space. As you can imagine, every species hope they become the "Earth hegemon". Other than the natural changes, they hope there will be no other competitors threatening the survival of themselves (and ethnic groups).

Of course, there is no need to deny that human beings are the only hegemon on the Earth, after countless ever-changing incidents. There are no competitors, and contestable species in the foreseeable millions of years, if there is no natural large-scale extinction change.

However, all living creatures, including human beings, have not stopped the evolution. Human beings have progressed from the most primitive and simple "to be alive" goal to "safe, comfortable, rich and happy living".  Furthermore, we are seeking to "freedom and living by independent will ".  However, obviously, this is still not enough to satisfy the desire of human beings to "Free and comfortable forever and living by our own independent will". Therefore, material civilization is advancing with science and technology, especially in medicine and biotechnology. Human beings can say that they have begun to escape the "evolutionary law" of natural law limits, and they are separated from the "evolutionary tree" of earth species. Although no one knows the general direction of where the future of mankind will go? However, it is an indisputable fact that human beings and other species have parted away and gradually diverge away.

Of course, what's more important is that humans have found a way to live for a long time with another form of life.  That is, "the soul will not die after death" and we can survive in the various of areas of the spiritual world, including heaven, hell, spiritual area like human society, better area, worse area, and some higher level spiritual world. Souls could even evolve to “energy state”, which is not only more free, but also more arbitrary.

However, these are only one goal after another for human beings, but they are still not the ultimate goal. What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of human life?

Life happens by chance, and human beings have been evolved by chance.  Human’s history is about seven million years, and it is only a matter of recent time compared with the history of the earth 4.6 billion years. We accidently became the hegemon of the earth species, and we jumped out from the evolutionary tree of this planet.  We are on a path with no road sign, no end, and we have no idea what the road is. (More correctly, there should be no ready-made road, just a boundless Wasteland)?

In the human world, there have not been any great prophets, and there is no such prophet who could provide a perfect plan or road map for the reference of all mankind. Therefore, the current state of mankind is really " To cross the river by feeling the stones." We are following the trend, step by step, no one can predict the long term future of human physical life and technological civilization.

Will the technological weapon accidentally destroy the great future of mankind? Or is a highly intelligent robot going to end a relatively incompetent human species? Or is alien civilization going to destroy humans on Earth?

Maybe, human beings can arbitrarily transform life forms and continue to survive in other time and space, until unknowable forever?

What do you say?

生命的目標

作者:張開基

不說「生命的目的」或「生命的意義」，是因為在詞義上有著容易模糊和誤解的差別；

假設說「生命的目的」，那麼就好像是在談「生命」最終的結果。

假設說「生命的意義」，又好像是在談生命的真諦之類的。

而「生命的目標」就比較屬於短程並且可以分為階段性的；

姑且不論地球以外的星球或星系有沒有「生命」，假設確實有外星生命，也仍然可以大部分涵蓋的；

以地球所有的生命來說，第一要義就是「活著」。

沒有「為什麼？」，也幾乎絕大多數的生命是不會問這個問題的，全部都是為了「活著」和「活下去」，從無例外。可以說所有生命都是不論要歷經任何艱辛困苦甚至拼了性命都要爭取「活著」和「活下去」的任何一丁點機會。

那麼「活著」和「活下去」的目標又是什麼呢？

覓食嗎？

任何形式的「覓食」，不論是草食、肉食、雜食、寄生、共生等等，這些都只是維持自身生命的一種手段而已，卻不是真正的目標。

結果，卻都是為了交配和繁殖，不論是有性生殖或者無性生殖，是複製分裂或異性交配，結果都是為了「繁殖後代」。

既然活著和覓食都只是為了「繁衍後代」，那麼，一代一代賡續的繁衍下去-------最終的目標又為何呢？

現代的生物學告訴了我們一個理性並「除魅」的答案：進化。

生物的進化和其生存的環境有著絕對的關係，因此，只要能夠適存，這種生物可以千萬年或億萬年不變，成為所謂的「活化石」，而一旦不能適存時，唯有「改變」才能存活，不論是「漸變」或「突變」，生命就是這樣因地制宜的經由繁衍的方式來改變，以求適存，也因此；現今地球生物的多樣化正是如此而來。

我們可以假設如果生存環境億萬年如一日的永遠不變，那麼生命會如何呢？

自然不需要改變，但是，受限於肉體生命的有限，所以，藉著一代一代的繁衍而延續了生物的自然生存-----

但是，事實上這是不可能的，僅以地球這顆尚未完全穩定，而時時仍在劇烈變動中的星球為範圍，所有生物幾乎是不可能不改變不進化的。

但是，「進化」卻仍然只是一種過程或者可以視為一種「求取適存」的方式而已，仍然不是目的也不是目標。

在所有生物生活在這個多變的地球上；以「進化」的方式來「求取適存」之中，不但要適存在不同的地形地貌、氣候、濕度、陽光、水份、空氣等等變數，還要與其他異類生物甚至同類生物產生各種殘酷的「生存競爭」，所謂優勝劣敗，適者生存。

也因此，可以說所有地球生物都是在爭取最適存和最有利的生存空間，而可以想見的，最終目標都是希望能成為「地球霸主」，除了自然變化，希望再無其他競爭對手可以威脅到自身（及族群）的生存。

想當然的，也根本不用否認的，人類正是在無數個多變的偶然事件中，歪打正著的成為目前地球所有生物中的唯一霸主，再也沒有任何競爭對手，同時可以預見的未來幾百萬年之內，若是沒有自然大規模的「滅絕變動」，也沒有其他任何生物能與人類一較長短了。

但是，所有的生物，包括人類本身仍然還是沒有停止「進化」的腳步，人類從最原始單純的「活著」和「活下去」的目標，進步為「安全舒適、富足快樂的活著和活下去」，再進步為「自由自在，依照自主意願的活著和活下去」；但是，這樣顯然還是不能完全滿足人類『能夠長長久久自由自在，依照自主意願的活著和活下去』的欲求，於是，物質文明伴隨科技的日新月異，尤其是在醫藥及生物科技方面的長足進步，人類可以說已經開始逸出自然律設限的「進化準則」，從地球物種的「進化樹上」脫離出來，雖然還沒有任何人知道人類未來何去何從的大方向？但是，人類和其他物種分道揚鑣，漸行漸遠已經是一個不爭的事實。

當然，更重要的是人類已經找到「用另一種生命形態使自己長久存活」的方式，那就是「死後靈魂不滅」，並且可以存活在任何依照自己意願選擇的「靈界」區域（包括天堂、地獄、一般類人間社會生活型態的靈界、或者較好的靈界或較差的靈界，以及更高層的靈界），也更甚至似乎可以以「能量態」的方式自我長久存活，而且不但更自由自在，也更加隨心所欲---------

然而，這些對人類而言，都只是一個又一個持續不斷的「目標」，卻仍然不是最終極的目的，也更遑論究竟「生命的意義何在？」、「人類的生命意義又何在？」

生命是偶然出現的，人類是偶然進化而來的，迄今不過700萬年，和地球46億年的歷史相較，只不過是不久之前的事，然後又歪打正著的成了地球物種中的霸主，並且自行跳脫了「進化樹」，自行劈荊斬棘、另闢蹊徑的走上一條沒有路標，沒有終點，更不知道究竟是何去何從的道路（更正確的；應該說根本沒有現成的道路，只是一片無垠的荒原）？

人類的世界裡，還沒有出現任何偉大的先知，也根本不會出現這樣的先知，能夠規劃出一條正確的道路地圖，以供全人類參考，也所以，人類目前的狀態真的是「摸著石頭過河」，或者說只是隨波逐流的盲目前行，走一步算一步，沒有任何人能預知人類肉體生命和科技文明的長遠未來將會如何？

是科技武器意外毀滅了人類大好的前程？還是高智慧的機器人終結了相對無能的人類物種？又或者是外星文明毀滅了地球人類？

又或者；人類可以任意的轉換生命形態，在其他時空中繼續存活，直到不可知的永遠永遠------------------？？？