Female fireflies flash their lights only to have intercourse

what's the point of that though? what's the point of mating just to die so your kids can mate and die? what do they accomplish?

>>39349160
You & I, alone, were left behind by the gaieties of summer to be actively mocked by the rest of the world, all of which were in high spirits due to summer's onset. The fireflies? They've moved on.

>>39349220
what does a firefly do when it can't mate? are you telling me to kms?

>>39349160

That's life itself dude.

The purpose of life forms is to live, to reproduce life, whose purpose is to live to reproduce life.

I mean ya, at a glance it seems empty and meaningless at first.

Until you look at, I dunno, the entire remainder of the observable universe which is unliving.

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>>39349233
Me, Eats With Bears, welcomes you to our humble tribe, The Biggest Boys of The Plane
Please, partake in the ceremonial peace-pipe of the sights and sounds of space

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>>39349337
but fireflies don't form a family unit. they don't raise their children, impart their firefly experiences on them. they just die.

look at swans, they mate for life. that's what life is.

>>39349356

No its all the same in the end, swans are just more complex so their young require more care

>>39349460
in the end yes we're all dust etc etc but I feel like the years of nurturing and family that occur between birth of a child and death is worth not skipping over

>>39349356

Nah dude you've got it wrong.

At it's basest, life is:
Eat, fuck, reproduce

Higher forms of life come with some extra steps:
Eat, sleep, mate (like courtship), fuck, reproduce


All of your behavior in life is derived from that.

Unless you're duped on that whole, "But anon, humans aren't animals, and more intelligent forms of life show activity which doesn't relate to those functions"

Except that's where you're wrong.
EVERYTHING you do can be tied back to the necessity to eat, sleep, and fuck.

"But anon, what about suicide"
Lol life is just kinda jerry-rigging this shit together y'know, it doesn't always come out right.
Hence, why we have this fantastic board! :D

>>39349534
there's stuff that comes after "reproduce"

is basically what I'm trying to say. or that there at least SHOULD BE stuff after reproduce. and it's very sad that the firefly doesn't have that.

>>39349566
Who would you be most comfortable spending eternity with?

>>39349613
I don't know anyone like that, or if anyone like that exists for me. I've never held anyone's hand dawg

>>39349628
Would you be comfortable spending eternity with even yourself? Or would that be your worst nightmare imaginable?

>>39349642
alone? that sounds like the worst thing. but if I had a second half so to speak I think it would be okay. assuming we really were halves and not the usual drift apart crap that happens to people when they settle for satisfactory.

>>39349469

But see the only thing that makes those experiences seem worthwhile are chemicals, fireflies have the same incentive and reward that we do, its just simpler.

>>39349665
I don't like the "reduce everything to chemical reactions" way of thinking, accurate as it may or may not be

>>39349566

It's sad to you, not sad to fireflies.

Fireflies don't have enough intellect to comprehend emotional states.

You know what's sad?
That planet over yonder, mars, with zero fire flies.
Zero fire flies now, and forever.

Getting to exist at all is better than never existing in the eternity of time.

I mean let's clearly weight the options here:

>Never exist. EVER. No chance of it. Less than nothing itself.
>Get to exist for a bit, AND you get to bang! How great is that!

>>39349713
>Fireflies don't have enough intellect to comprehend emotional states.
that's a bit sad too

imagine having one shot at a consciousness and you're a fucking fly. or a plankton. or some helpless thing that exists to be food. it makes me feel guilty about rolling the most intelligent species on our planet and wasting it.

>>39349692

It doesn't matter what you like, cause that's what it is. Those good feelings that come form those experiences are just natures way of telling us we are doing a good job and are on the right track, it just seems special because we are experiencing it from the 1st person perspective, but when you zone out we are just bacteria reproducing on a rock in a space.

>>39349784
why be so overly reductive about the most important thing in the universe, our consciousness and experience and purpose

>>39349798
>why be so overly reductive about the most important thing in the universe

lol

>>39349909
what's more important than it?

>>39349665
>>39349784
The Bible says that to achieve salvation we must become dead to the world and be reborn. What it means is that before it's possible to accept what your experiences are teaching you, you need to able to accept your own death. Death feels terrifying for those who haven't experienced it. But contrariwise, for those who have experienced ego-death many times, the visceral acceptance of impermanency and mortality is very matter-of-fact.

Chapter 50 of the Tao Te Ching puts it this way:

>The Master gives himself up
>to whatever the moment brings.
>He knows that he is going to die,
>and he has nothing left to hold on to:
>no illusions in his mind,
>no resistances in his body.
>He doesn't think about his actions;
>they flow from the core of his being.
>He holds nothing back from life;
>therefore he is ready for death,
>as a man is ready for sleep
>after a good day's work.

>>39349780

Tomorrow is a new day anon, you have some leeway to break out of the routine. Go for a walk! It will help to get you thinking. :]