Richard Dawkins: Meaning of Life | AI Podcast Clips

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Richard Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist, and author of The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, The God Delusion, The Magic of Reality, The Greatest Show on Earth, and his latest Outgrowing God. He is the originator and popularizer of a lot of fascinating ideas in evolutionary biology and science in general, including funny enough the introduction of the word meme in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, which in the context of a gene-centered view of evolution is an exceptionally powerful idea. He is outspoken, bold, and often fearless in his defense of science and reason, and in this way, is one of the most influential thinkers of our time.

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[Wflowergrown]

You can make a compilation or a playlist for this question "meaning of life"

[supercajun]

When I am asleep and not dreaming, my brain is not executing the functions that "produce" consciousness. The physical components of which I'm comprised are not arranged in or behaving in a manner that results in experience. It is the same as if all my atoms had been temporarily scattered throughout the universe. I am effectively dead. I don't exist at that time. When my brain again begins executing those functions that produce consciousness, I wake up. I have a feeling of familiarity toward the things I perceive in my surroundings, toward the thoughts I call memories, and toward the sensations associated with being "me." The me that wakes up is not exactly the same as the me that went to bed the previous night (that me no longer exists), but because of the sense of familiarity, I conclude that I am back, that I am *continuing* to exist. The time that I was asleep and not dreaming seems to have passed instantaneously because I was not in existence during that time. Perhaps dying will be similar. Given the size of the universe (or multiverse or whatever this "thing" is that we are in) and given that it perhaps persists forever, what is the probability that there will never again arise a system that perceives itself to be the continuation of the me who has died or, at least, the continuation of the sense of me on a more basic level (i.e., a child [or other young creature] who for the first time realizes "here I am")? Most people object at this point and say, "But that will be a different you in a different place and at a different time. You will no more be 'that you' than you are another you that is existing at the same time as you in another place." However, go back to what happens when you wake up after sleeping. That also is a different you. It was literally reconstructed after a period of presumably not existing at all. Despite that, what is the subjective experience of waking up?

[arunramji]

Science and reason makes you more humble and kind, Dawkins is a living proof !!

[Ro-ninm]

Richard and Lex what a great little snippet!
Loved the podcast!
When i discovered the content authored by Richard Dawkins, it changed my life and I will forever point anyone with questions about how to truly understand natural selection, its mechanisms, and many more topics!! Beautiful work!!
The selfish gene!

[CarlVibe]

Interesting perspective. I was meditating the other day and it occurred to me that when we die, if that span of nothingness after death went on for millions of years, if there ever came another awareness of consciousness - the gap in between would never even be perceived. The millions of years of nothingness would go unnoticed by the conscious perceiver and all there would ever be would be the alive and aware stages of existence. For the same reason we have no memory of any life before, the immeasurable gap of nothingness becomes just a mystery we ponder during the alive stages. If you are not there to perceive the gap of death then all that is known is the awareness of living.

[Alex-qbnt]

I feel lucky, I always knew the meaning of life was to have good times, good laughs, create, focus on our passions, focus on what we like. It's about pursuing pleasures.

[Misses-Hippy]

The meaning of life? The real question is, "Why rocks?" So I asked my dog the meaning of life and she said, "Rough".

[nickpmusic]

It's becoming more and-more prevalent to not ask the question "What is the meaning of life'' but to ask "What are we doing in a simulated existence". When staunch atheists like Richard Dawkins seriously consider this possibility, then, "Thats's what gets you" as Richard Feynman once said.

[sidharthvyas]

And YouTube showed me a 5min add of a Bible school bashing Richard Dawkins.

[mitchtavio]

Been a few years since I've watched anything with Dawkins. He looks good. Seems like he recovered quite well after his stroke.

[LeoBattlelionskillua]

I really like how you’ve been asking this question in a lot of your conversations.

I hope you could consider a small request: when you do ask it, leave out any clarifying or leading questions after it (i do like the preface/build up you usually include to this question. like in this clip the buildup was perfect.)

Once they’ve given their initial answer, then steer them towards giving a more personal or satisfying answer if they’ve dodged it a little.

Thanks for your content!

[ErnieRMC]

It’s a privilege seeing these people that you bring to the interview. For me to be exposed to them Truly enhances my knowledge. Felt the same way about the Charlie Rose shows Being a great part of my education. So I’m really glad for your shows replacing that void.

[ARVINDful]

I think meaning of LIFE partly depends on where you born i.e your geographical location, economical status and artificial wicked or pseudo scientific design. In technical jargon, it is known as initial conditions which decides what will be your future trajectory.

[dizzyboxnine]

Nice Interview. RD has interesting perspectives to share.

[Bagual]

'Any woman in the audience who wants to receive my DNA ...?' [Richard Dawkins]

[saiyaniam]

I'd argue just about everything we do is in service to the dna replication idea. Even if sex isn't on your mind, it's in your subconscious and your body. The most un sex related activities are in some way solidifying your place in a group or making yourself more desirable in some way. Even me making this post to people I'll never meet and will likely not get seen by many people, is in service to joining in and putting my thoughts and logic out there to be worth something to the group.

[jeremylink]

Meaning of life.. to express who you are at the depest level

[ThatOneScienceGuy]

The meaning of life is to dance in this incredible wonder we call existence

[artawesome]

This question fascinates me because it's so straightforward, but giving a coherent answer is close to impossible. "What's the meaning of life?"
You can't say 'to live' because we also die. Nor can you say 'to experience' because we disassociate. For every answer, there's an obvious rebuttal. I think concept artist Iain McCaig gave the best answer I've heard to the question: "Contrast".

[mohamedkh]

I do like philosophy and critical thinking, but when it comes to the big questions that we dont have answers to. I just trust God the creator. thats the only way I can live a meaningful life.