Francis
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Author: F. Heylighen,
Date: Jan 31, 1995
Parent Node(s):
Introduction to Principia Cybernetica
********What is the meaning of life?*******
The quick answer to this fundamental question is the following:
The meaning of life is to increase fitness.
In order to start giving the long answer, we should first examine each of
the key
terms in this sentence:
meaning:
a very complex concept which can have many interpretations. In this
context
we will assume it signifies the "why" (origin, past) or "wherefor"
(purpose,
future) of life, but in a way our answer also may explain us the "what"
(definition, present).
life:
in this context it normally means our present being here on earth,
but this
may be generalized to include life as a particular type of
organization and
development characterizing biological organisms, and even more universally
as organization and development in general.
fitness:
intuitively, a system, configuration or "state-of-affairs" is fit if
it is likely that
that configuration will still be around in the future. The more
likely we are to
encounter that system, the more fit it is. Though there are many ways
to be fit,
depending on the exact situation, we may say that fit systems tend to be
intrinsically stable, adapted and adapting to their surroundings,
capable of
further growth and development, and/or capable of being (re)produced in
great quantities.
Fitness is the most important and tricky term of the answer to define
(see e.g. a
definition in terms of transition probabilities). It can only be
defined in terms
which are not obvious themselves, and so need further definitions,
and so on.
One can hope that after a few rounds of definitions, the meaning will
become
sufficiently intuitive to be satisfactory for most readers. The whole
of Principia
Cybernetica Web can be viewed as an attempt to provide a sufficiently
extensive semantic networks of concepts clarifying concepts (such as
"fitness").
increase:
this should be obvious enough. The use of the term "increase" implies that
the concept to which it is attributed, "fitness", is to some degree
quantifiable.
Note, however, that it is everything but obvious how to do this:
fitness is
difficult to measure, and is relative, depending on situation,
environment and
moment in time. At the very least, we assume that there eists a partial
ordering, i.e. some configurations are more fit than others. A more
general
form of the answer is "not to decrease fitness": in some
circumstances it may
be good enough to keep fitness the way it is.
We may conclude by paraphrasing the answer in the following way: the purpose of
(living) organization is to continuously increase future probabilities of
encountering
this same type of organization. The argumentation for this can be found in the
variation and selection principles of evolution.
This answer provides a foundation for answering the other fundamental
questions of
philosophy:
What exists? (ontology)
configurations that have a minimal fitness. Below a certain fitness
treshold,
phenomena are so variable, or fleeting that they cannot be observed in any
objective manner, and have no causal influence on anything else, so
we might
as well say that they don't exist. Examples are "virtual particles"
in quantum
field theories.
What is (true) knowledge? (epistemology)
fit models or representations of fit configurations. Phenomena with low
fitness are too unstable to allow reliable models (see previous
paragraph).
Good models should satisfy some additional criteria in order to be fit
themselves.
How should we act? (ethics)
by doing things that increase our own long-term fitness, taking into
account
the fitness of the systems (society, ecosystems) to which we belong.
Enhancing
long-term fitness is the fundamental good, or basic value of our
philosophical
system.
_______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Francis Heylighen Systems Researcher
PO, Free University of Brussels, Pleinlaan 2, B -1050 Brussels, Belgium
Phone: +32-2-629 25 25; Fax: +32-2-629 24 89 (**new numbers!)
Email:fheyligh@vnet3.vub.ac.be; URL: http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html