@Bevan1988

9 months ago

Biology doesnt have objectives/goals.. that suggests there is thought or will involved.

There is no thought involved in homeostatic mechanisms, there are just auto self-perpetuating cycles that stabilise at certain levels based on environmental conditions. Much like how if you have bromine in a vial at room temperature you will achieve an equilibrium between the Bromine gas turning into liquid and bromine liquid turning into gas. Stabilising both at a constant level. That level of gas or liquid will change if you add heat or take it away.

Animals reproduce because the reason they have come into existence as an individual is because of the repeated behaviour of their ancestors to reproduce. Ergo the species self-perpetuating is coded in because it had to be coded in. Otherwise every species would last one generation and complex lifeforms wouldnt come into being. Now that self-perpetuating cycle could be disrupted if you change the inputs (e.g. increasing solar output could increase temp, decreasing the food sources or habitat which cause stress, which slows the cycle down or ends it)

By extension the biosphere doesnt have an objective, it is just the current homeostatically stable configuration. There may be other stable configurations with this set of environmental inputs, there may be other stable configurations at other environmental inputs.

The biosphere doesnt have a goal to create intelligent life. Intelligent life capable of abstract thought is just the output of a stable configuration. And even then its a rare output. It has to be a rare output because the Earth has had multiple environmentally stable eras where life capable of abstract thought wasn't generated.

Who knows maybe had the asteroid not hit, if the right environmental selective pressures had been applied to dinosaurs, we'd have a reptilian capable of abstract thought. A brain capable of abstract thought is such a complex entity that it has a lot of selective pressure against it.

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