KenBakerMN

A similar theory is a flood through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea.

The simple but unsatisfying answer is that life is simply something that happens as a consequence of laws and initial conditions of the universe, like galaxies or the structure of the water molecule. In that reductionist view life doesn't have any meaning or purpose to the universe as a whole. it just happened. That raises the question, what is the meaning our purpose of our human life in particular, but that's a whole 'nother discussion. A related question is, what is consciousness to the universe? It's harder to see how self-awareness and free will could be a consequence a purely physical processes. Which leads to the next question, does free will even exist? I think it does, but I'm at a complete loss as to how it can be possible. Or this, is consciousness a necessary condition for free will, or vice versa, or neither? Can anyone smarter than me (which is probably most of you) comment on this?

New guy here, coming a little late to the party. Yeah, this topic is lowbrow but interesting nonetheless. Having had a lengthy commute for a couple of years, I've had time to think about this situation. The right solution is to make full use of both lanes and zipper merge at the end. If everyone does it that way it's fair and works perfectly. Many people insist on being nice and merging early. But if the lane is open I pass the line in the other lane and merge as far ahead as I can. It may seem like I'm being a dick to the people who got in line before me, but if they don't know the right way to handle that situation, it's not my problem.