The Girl in Pajamas

“Did I do anything wrong today,” he said, “or has the world always been like this and I’ve been too wrapped up in myself to notice?”

~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Lazy Me (LM): Why do I have to work?

Sensible Me (SM): To earn money.

LM: Why?

SM: To buy the things that I want.

LM: Why?

SM: To be happy.

LM: Why?

SM: I don’t know, because it feels good maybe? 🤷🏻‍♀️

LM: Hmm, let’s try this again. Why do we have to work?

SM: To earn money.

LM: Why?

SM: To buy stuff that I need.

LM: Why?

SM: So I can live.

LM: Why?

SM: Why what? Why do I have to live? That’s an excellent question, why really do I have to live?

Let’s do a Google search. Why do we live?

First result: a question on Quora, answer includes …to seek happiness, fulfillment, or spiritual enlightenment… umm not really answering my question.

Next result: Ask a grown-up, why do we live? We live because others want us to, and… mmm nope next.

If We All End Up Dying, What’s the Purpose of Living? As humans, our primary instinct and goal is to stay alive ourselves and help each other stay alive. We are naturally inclined to sustain life. …Okay… next.

What is the Purpose of Life? We evolved so that we can live. Thus, we could also say that we live to evolve, so there’s a circularity here. Evolution is the process that… Hmm, interesting.

Next result, oh wow, there is a Meaning of Life topic on Wikipedia… let’s see… Biologists generally agree that lifeforms are self-organizing systems which regulate their internal environments as to maintain this organized state… self organising? Who, little old me?

Let’s read more, click. Intro.. some philosophical stuff, scroll, scroll, scroll. Ah ha, scientific enquiry and perspectives, click. Psychological… nope, scroll. Origin and nature of biological life… okay looks promising.

…James Watson stated “I don’t think we’re for anything. We’re just the products of evolution.” Oh, completely agree with you there, James.

…Physically, one may say that life “feeds on negative entropy”… Negative entropy? What’s that? ….which refers to the process by which living entities decrease their internal entropy at the expense of some form of energy taken in from the environment…. I see. Quick google check: Negative entropy refers to a system becoming less disordered or more ordered. Okay, that makes more sense. Scroll.

Biologists generally agree that lifeforms are self-organizing systems which regulate their internal environments… yes, I am a self-organising system who is able to regulate her internal environment, that’d be the joke of the century, wouldn’t it …as to maintain this organized state, metabolism serves to provide energy, and reproduction causes life to continue over a span of multiple generations. Typically, organisms are responsive to stimuli and genetic information changes from generation to generation, resulting in adaptation through evolution; this optimizes the chances of survival for the individual organism and its descendants respectively.

Well, firstly, I am not “adapting” to anything, and secondly I’m not producing any descendants either. Well not naturally yet anyway. I might be a defective piece as far as survival of the species goes. Suffice it to say I will not be selected as a prime representative of a group of 8 billion organisms.

LM: That’s amazing! Thank-you. Well let’s see if I can sum this up. My primary purpose, biologically speaking, is to survive or live, going back to the original question. What are the bare necessities required for my survival?

SM: The NASA page says that we must have food, water, air, and shelter (likely to sleep) to survive.

LM: So, if any one of these basic needs is not met, then humans cannot survive. Does that sound right?

SM: So far, yes.

LM: So if I find a small inexpensive cabin in nature with a fresh water source, forage for seeds, nuts and fruits, then I don’t need to work, right?

SM: Well… yes… but do you enjoy being in the nature and have enough energy to go hunting and gathering for your food?

LM: Um no and no.

SM: Then you have to work and pay someone else to get it done.

LM: Dang it!

SM: Now can I please go to bed!?

LM: Yes

Good-night!

The Girl in Pajamas 👩🏻‍🦱