All our needs boil down to the possibility of entropy exchange on all scales possibly imaginable or real, in all possible moments of the past future and present. Truly survival is down to probability. In all its beauty, horror and exceptional outstanding surprising and heart breaking coincidental magnificence that is present between us all and with in each of us, Life is all about possible events and out comes becoming true on our time scale and the fact that we experience them.
Which I find relevant and interesting as it is based on mortality. Which is something humans have been unwilling to accept for a long time, but really despite it's sadness and its tragic manipulation/exploitation by people in situations of strife, confusion and war, our mortality is the one natural necessity to ensure variety. Life is determined by varying between repetitions, differentiating and flexibility with in the boundaries of what is for the best. To avoid sclerosis, inflexibility and the inability to adapt when faced with uncontrollable natural forces, excessive repetition is a no-go. Needless to say, boud-less differentiation threatens the internal sense of necessity. Hence, Balance is another vital asset to our survival. It is insured by the mortality of living things and their ability to reproduce and adapt. Adaptation is guaranteed by our responses (both physical and emotional) to our changing environment that fuel growth and development.
Investigating molecular functions or processes in any living thing will probably get us closer to defining the essentials of survival. Survival is about sustaining your existence, or maintaining life/consciousness. To survive, what is necessary (in no particular order) are these:
nutrition (including excretion)/chemicals of life,
cellular organization,
growth and development,
reproduction,
response to surroundings/ sensing,
energy use (human/cellular 'eatage' of energy),
Life is a property that any living thing will have to posses if it is to be categorized as ALIVE. And what an exceptional and unique property it is. Reproduction eventually (after generations etc) allows evolution to physically effect any organism which has been influenced by its environment and its changes in order to improve its ability to live and keep living. Luckily for us one way in which we respond to our environment or surroundings is through the art/science/music/culture/society and relationships we share. These all enhance our existence when they are nurtured. We are fortunate that we can enjoy these things. That its self also helps us live.
Its ironic though as some human responses take us a step backwards which to me indicates that the type of consciousness possessed by the human paradoxically inhibits our ability to survive. Hmmmf? Nonetheless, Im sure we are all grateful to have it.
In the physical, macro-scale existence we have in our communities one of the many key human accomplishments that has made so much progression (funnily again AND destruction) for our species is discovery and ability to influence the direction of energy, eg understanding the fundamentals of thermodynamics. Art and Science are vital and similar in their dependency to each other. For example technological break through from the discovery of cooking clay to computer programing have developed and invented new creative abilities while imaginative thought and our ability to visualize have forced innovations and breakthroughs in Science that help us survive and improve our short lives. *
On that note, lets leave what we have already established and visit this link. (About surviving in an isolated incident) Im sure it will be helpful. Lets thank Andy for that.
* Or at least ATTEMPT to make them longer and more pleasant.
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