RE: Life into Perspective: A thought
I agree with @meekal. It's true we are our brains, and that our brains are organic, and ruled by firing neurons and brain chemistry. But as Meekal points out this ignores the subjective experience of wt it is to be alive. A good place to start is the idea of meaning. Meaning is a human made concept. You couldn't explain to a dog or a cat how to live a meaningful life. Depression, pleasure, apathy, resenting or feeling trapped by the human condition are concepts that so far only humans have the mental softwear to express. What I'm saying is that I can't think of a framework to define meaningful outside of our current existence. We ourselves decide what is meaningful to us while we are alive. If it happens that our race becomes extinct, this does not detract from the pleasure I get from listening to a Beethoven symphony this afternoon. I see no alternative to embracing and trying our hardest to enjoy the time we do have on this planet.
Don't get me wrong. I do not tr to remove the perception of pleasure of anything along those lines. I am merely describing something that all can understand and absorb one way or another. Beyong the points I made one can choose to mask anything with "subjective" concepts. Death is an objective form of reality.