http://news.discovery.com/animals/chimpanzees-self-awareness-110504.html

Poirot, all that your original quote proved, was how little that
philosophers knew about primatology and what fools they made of
themselves, jumping to conclusions. Descartes was an expert at this.

The behaviour of small monkeys, which are prey to chimps, eagles and
other predators, is more like what he described. Chimps, bonobos
and gorillas are just as relaxed in their native environment as
any tribe of humans living in the forest. In fact more so, because
nobody argues with a gorilla. Their only predator these days is man.

If we create problem solving challenges for species like orangs and
chimps, we know that they can solve them, by innovation involving
a number of steps. So clearly they can plan, think ahead and innovate.
How much they think about other things, we really don't
know. So my point is that Ortega was wrong

>> venture onto OLO and do what little I can to combat the forces of darkness --which invariably sees me crossing swords with Poriot (sic) <<

SPQR - WTF?

Poor attempt at irony perhaps. I have my disagreements with Poirot, but would hardly colour her even remotely dim let alone dark. There are far worse cavaliers of ignorance on OLO than my oft challenging Poirot (and if she knew what I knew about someone I dare not name, she would understand a lot more about me).

Is there a meaning to life?

Well if it means standing up to complete toss-pots and not being intimidated by those for whom power is an aphrodisiac, then there is meaning to my existence. Of course this may well not apply to others, whose existence is based on forcing conformity on others or on the brand and quantity of material possessions or even type of career.

Thank you, Ammonite : )
(must admit, I do like the word "tosspot"!)

Yabby,

That, of course, is your opinion.

I think its an interesting theory, in that we have evolved our hulking neo-cortex and in tandem with our propensity for theoretical thinking and our imagination, have applied our ideas to manipulate our material environment, thus furnishing us with ever more time for contemplation and improvement. Tribal man tends to be less innovative than civilised man, yet there is no comparison between his innovation and that of other primates, it's streaks ahead.

But I suppose my main question was "is there a point to life in general", not so much what purpose our psyche's fashion from our experience...on the surface there wouldn't appear to be.

*Tribal man tends to be less innovative than civilised man, yet there is no comparison between his innovation and that of other primates, it's streaks ahead.*

Indeed Poirot, but humans continue to show incredible human bias,
when it comes to analysing why and how much the difference really
is, in terms of brain function.

I once argued with an anthropologist who claimed that only humans
have culture. When I pointed out that culture is largely what
mothers teach their kids and that chimp moms have been seen to
teach their kids how to crack open nuts using certain stones,
he claimed that this was not culture as they were not human!

It is simplistic to compare Eintein to a chimp and then claim
some kind of human magical powers.

The critical evolutionary step was as much the vocal tract, as
the brain. Chimps missed out on that one and so language and the
passing on of information, is extremely limited. Humans have built
what they have on the pack of combining billions of brains, through
the power of language.

But set a chimp and a human free in the jungle, without any human
gadgets or help from others, in many cases the chimp would win
when it came to survival of the fittest, despite that human brain

Yabby,

You'll get no argument from me about the importance of language in man's advancement.

And of course a chimp would be better suited to survival in the jungle (although tribal man could probably match him), the same as Western man would fair better in a Westfield Mall.

...Nature says by law, the purpose of life is to consume energy by means of procreation with the outcome measured as entropy. In the end, all will be still. How simple.

...So get along with the task and make love in order to procreate, but remember, as entropy increases heat decreases, so the heart grows colder; thus unhappiness can now be added to the scales of entropy!