More Denton: Reply to Tony (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Thursday, August 13, 2015, 02:06 (3391 days ago) @ dhw

Dhw: You have summed up the problem very aptly: “To answer DHW's question about possibilities is likely impossible, due to my own ignorance. How many behaviors does a dog have? How many behaviors does a bird have?” Within the limits of what each organism can do and what the environment will allow each organism to do (a fish can't swim if there is no water), the possibilities would seem to be almost endless. 
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> TONY: Actually, you bring up an important point here that I think adds more constraints than you might initially suspect. I think the environment adds fairly significant constraints that dramatically reduces the number of programs required, because all un-programmed for behaviors and un-programmed for environmental scenarios end in death. When we look at nature, this is in fact what we see. Fish out of water dies. Fish too deep dies [...]
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>DHW: You seem to be suggesting that all survivors have been preprogrammed, whereas all non-survivors have not. -Not at all. I am saying that survivors were the ones that stayed within their pre-defined limits, whereas non-survivors were exposed to environments that exceeded their limits, and thus were unable to adapt.

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What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.