1. To survive. Our body wants to survive. For example: this is why we can’t drown yourself without an external force. It wants to survive for part two.

2. To procreate. Our body, that walking bag of meat that you wander the world in, is just a vessel for your chromosomes — your DNA. Our chromosomes are what separate us from other species on Earth. It’s why we are no more than an ancient cousin of the ape. The way they are aligned is why we feel emotion. They are why we can see beauty in a painting. They are why are brains are the complex glob of cells they are, capable of love, remembering and creating. Over many thousands of years, we slowly evolved these things to insure that survived and then to make sure we want to procreate. The chemicals that make us feel love and that makes us experience pleasure during intercourse, slowly came into existence to insure we would find a mate and pass on our DNA.

Essentially, we are giant (in comparison to the size of our DNA), organic robot suits (and who doesn’t love robot suits) with the purpose of passing on our genetic material to insure that our particular genetic line does not die out. It’s survival of the fittest. The humans that don’t pass on their DNA simply have their line die out. Weeded out of existence, possibly because they couldn’t attract a mate, or maybe just because their passion was with something else. Either way, their genes are no longer in the pool.

I don’t think this means that life has to be bleak because of the realist outlook that I have. It means that you can live life and experience life without any false notion about why you’re here and what your purpose is. You can experience all that you need to experience in life because this is your only shot at it. Well, in your current conscious form, anyways. What is consciousness anyways, other than choices (or experiences) that you’ve made throughout your life and how you have interpreted them? Change even one and you’re someone different than your current self. If we had no long term memory, would we truly be conscious?

The external stimulation from the world and people around us is what shapes who we are constantly. Then there is the internal stimulation (or filters) that we apply to that said stimulation that we use to interpret everything. It’s kind of amazing and beautiful when you think about that. Who we are is something very fragile. A different choice or interpretation of the stimulation that forced that choice could have had a drastic effect on how we came out.

To sort of wrap up my thoughts: the chemicals that make us feel love and want us to reproduce had a side effect: they made us feel and see beauty in the environment around us. Even though everything in life is chemical and electrical reactions to external stimulation that are then interpreted by our brains, there can still be beauty in it. Just the fact that we can *experience* and reflect on it is something to consider. Nothing else on the planet can do that (that we know of, anyways). All the processing that goes into analyzing a song, a painting or a book it’s something amazing. You’re taking in something external and translating it into chemical and electrical signals, which can translate into all sorts of emotions, from disgust to beauty and to even relate to it in your own life is something very unique to the humanity and I don’t think should be taken lightly.

1. Nothing can be nothing, except for nothing, but even then nothing is still something.

2. Intelligent life serves the purpose of observation.