Name:     Shinaal
IP:       131.94.2.160
Subject:  The purpose
Email:    Shinaal@hotmail.com
Website:  http://
Article:
I ask all who read, is the purpose of life, to you, the strugle for some thing better, to
create, to "Fight/fuck/survive", something else, or all of the above?I think the purpose of life
is what you want it to be.. for me it is a little of all the above. what is life without a
struggle? perhaps not individualy but as a whole, what is the purpose of human life? my life
would be very dull without creation be it by myself or others... clearly there wouldn't be
"life" without creation. about the struggle for something better i have talked to SquareFool
about it before. but it's something else surely. I can't put my figer on it but it has to do
with sheer enjoyment of all that we have... that's why we shouldn't dwell on the bad things. God
or whatever you believe in surely didn't create the world for us to dwell on all it's flaws.
Life is for enjoyment to me. some say it's a test, but that just doesn't seem quiet right to me.
I do hope you don't just ignore this message for I am interested in anyones thoughts.
Shinaal--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
                    Replying to Original Article:Article:
Greetings, Classic Hand Tossed!
(I bet you thought you'd never hear that very very obscure nickname again, eh?)
You raise some important issues that I want to respond to (and on your first post here even! 
Dizamn!):
1)  Frenzy I understand.  And let me tell you - you HAVE to make some time for yourself or you
will crack.  There are no exceptions to this statement.
2)  Did you read the Symposium yet?  I smell a hater of Socrates in our midst.  He says that
Eros (love in the true sense) is the pursuit of good things and happiness, and the pursuit of
making them ours always (an immortal sense of Eros).  Do you not believe that a man can be made
immortal by giving birth (in both the physical and spiritual senses) in the beautiful?  Example,
if you create a lasting work of art, do you not extend your life in some fashion?
2a)  You don't like our complacency with technology, and that's fine - we get smothered by it. 
But consdier as a side note - what if we have the technology to extend ourselves (or the things
we give birth to in the beautiful, such as works of art) through technology?  I don't
necessarily mean that we would live forever, but our WORKS have a much more permanent sense. 
This excites me and lightens the burden of technology in my eyes.  If I can be the child of
technology and art...
3)  You seem to flip-flop on our free will.  You say "we fight, we fuck, we survive," and yet we
do not want to "subjugate our free will."  I would say that this forms a contradiction - if all
we do is fight, fuck, and survive, that's an existence that is devoid of free will - for do we
not consider our goals that fall outside fighting, fucking, and surviving to be an extension of
our free will?  So, one of those is out, and I believe it's the "fight/fuck/survive."  No room
for art there.  Not enough creation.
4)  Technology does stifle us, but it's not the enemy, nor is it the thing which stifles us the
most.  You are right about people typically only knowing about the areas in which they
specialize, but what the hell did you expect?  For some memory to stick well in our brains there
should be some strong emotional content associated with it, otherwise we forget.  It's only
natural that we forget those things which we may have learned but have no care for.  But anyway,
have you considered that technology provides for some people a drive that was not there?  Take
me as an example.  Before my BBS days I was ambitionless - but posting messages like this for an
hour or two every day transformed me into an active, participating human being, just as it
transforms people now.  Then I discovered electronic music.  I admit that, without the aid of a
tracker, my ability to create music would be almost nonexistent.  Technology can take away our
goals and our ambitions, true, but more importantly it can give them to us.  I believe that the
goals shown to us through technology will prove to be the highest and best goals in the end...
Hope to see you posting again soon.  Don't lose yourself in MIT hell.
--ZAPP--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
                    Replying to Original Article:	You seem to talk about having goals and living
life as if it actually meant something.  Bravo, you have found the time to ponder the meaning of
your brief existence on this orb.
	I for one am more concerned with surviving day to day.  Looking ahead to days I know nought of
is a luxury I can ill afford.  But let me take this rare break in the frenzy to offer you my
incoherent view on things.
	In the long term, I am nothing more than worm food.  My DNA may live on through my children, my
words and ideas may insuinuate throughout this culture, and my memory revered by all.  Or not. 
I simply search for what humanity is, and if I am lucky, find that humans really do have
something to live for, as a species.  We have yet to mature, are driven by instinctual urges
that shall lead to success in terms of an individual and suicide as a whole.  I've wondered if
there is possibly any system that could make this better, and have discovered few viable
options.
	We're not ready to subjugate our vaunted free will to the greater good of the species as a
whole.	We're not ready to sacrifice ourselves for our ideals.
	We're not ready to take our place, not as superiors, but as equals, in the universe.
	My scant hope finds solace in the fact that one day we may be ready.  But such a thing looms so
far over the horizon that I can not even begin to qualify what form we must assume to realize
our full potential.
	And until then, man is nothing more than a pack of bald killer apes, for which I feel guilty of
mischaracterizing our simian ancestors.  We've one right, one drive, one purpose.
	We Fight.	We Fuck.	We Survive.
	Those qualities are the very things that keeps our species wallowing in its own filth, but i
must maintain that those attirbutes are the very same which will be necessary once our evolution
is complete.
	That is, if we don't blow ourselves up in the process.  I envy those who believe not in God,
nor the Devil.  They've nothing to fear but their own failings.  I am cursed with a strong
belief in God, the Devil, and Man.  I wonder what form disappointment shall arrive to greet me.
		We've come to rely too much on technology, become lazy, complacent.  We no longer are in the
environment for which nature designed us.  Our turgid bodies waddle down the street in our vain
attempt to make something of ourselves.  Wispy waifs starve themselves in search of making
themselves attractive, in turn rendering themselves suitable as nothing more than ornaments.
	Our technolgy is a form of laziness, and is akin to any respectable leech.  It drains our
money, our resources, our time, all in the quest for entertainment.  Sometimes, I envy those
cultures that are closer to nature.  At least they know that they are surviving, and are paying
a dear cost for it.  Humanity as a whole can not survive without technology, a psychological
block which diverts our energy from surviving to languishing.
	Our technology stifles our greatest resource.  Walk up to any person on the street, and I can
almost guarantee that they know nothing other than what they specialize in.  I've verified it
here.  Not enough to prove anything, just enough to be alarming.  Ask anybody any question, and
they will tell you one of the most oft repeated phrases in the English language.  Make the
question real, but don't trap them.  Be fair about it.
	I bid thee good day. I've labored too long on a piece of worthless drivel.  And put a picture
of Derek's ass up there.  It would have prevented me from writing this, which I gather to be a
great thing indeed.	Have Faith.  Have Fun.  Have Mercy.  Ever and Always.
		Alphagold1