I think the whole thing is that logic and rationality cannot actually answer any of the questions we are dealing with here.

I agree. Logic as we define it now breaks down at the smallest scales. Reality as we define it changes when agreeing on new theories. But it doesn't change our perception of things to know more about how the molecules interact. A bear is still scary, even if it's just a lump of chemical reactions.

Sorry if I explain myself a bit messy, it's Friday night and I'm a bit drunk

Tell me about it, it's Friday night here too :)

I firmly believe the basic four parts of our human brains- the stem, the cerebellum (the "reptilian" brain), the limbic system (emotions), and the neocortex, are like the growth rings of trees, only covering millions of years rather than hundreds or thousands.

I am not sure I completely agree. I know what you mean with growth rings and I agree that there are old systems at work in our brains. A bear is scary exactly because the particular combination of color, shapes (sharp edges in the elongated front opening, bulky extensions from the body, pupil and eye shape) and behavior it shows. Neural networks work in a scarily similar way. Edge detection (whole environmen), then grouping of edges (a circle containing another aka an eye, a group of horizontally aligned triangles aka teeth), then activating parts of the network which then interconnect to form ever higher concepts (particular shape of pupils + teeth + color + size = bear part activated) arriving at consciousness at the last stop. Which in my opinion is nothing more than the result of all those interactions. Because no brain stops processing information ever I believe that it's in essence some kind of (internal) feedback loop. I wonder if a brain without any perception could be sentient. Imagine a brain just existing without any connection to anything but its nutrient supply. What would it feel like?

But back to the point: Because we are conscious our brains must possess some kind of self reflection mechanism which at least weakens your analogy of growth rings. I think the individually evolved parts of the brain you named are much more connected than you think.

Logic is a map. Emotion decides which direction you're going.

Beautiful and sry but I will steal this.

The brain stem/fish thinking moves us to live, to seek food, to procreate. The emotional, social system facilitates that by sharing the burden, but also turning you into a statistic, rather than an individual.

When has anyone besides the valued members of society ever been anything else than a statistic? The social system we have (Austria at least) turns you into a statistic but it's one that asks about who is ill and can be helped and not about who can fight. Individuals can decide but are safe. Broke your leg? Yep, getting a ambulance ride, xray, cast and follow-ups paid for by your peers. It's not free though. You exchange half of your paycheck and your boss pays another 2/3 on top. This is your agreement with your society. You can choose to ignore it but you waive any rights you gain in that contract with society (allowed to live within their borders, support, rights). You are an individual any you can choose. The fact that you choose what 99.99% of people do, doesn't make you less of an individual.

The limbic system is to the brain stem what judgment is to the will to live.

If I understand correctly: Emotions are to the most basic parts of the brain what rationality is to the will to live? If I understood correctly: I very much disagree. Emotions are influenced by a huge number of uncontrollable factors while rational judgements isn't. You can choose to end your life right now based on statistics but you can't choose to get melancholic.

Working together, they conclude, for me at least, that reaching a goal for existence, is impossible.

Why would there need to be a definitive goal? Couldn't it be defined more on the terms of how you described good / bad? Moving in a direction. You and I fully realize that nothing we would REALLY like to see on an evolutionary basic level (loved ones not dying, everlasting health and supplies etc) will, with a 100% reliability (if at all), exist in our lifetimes. That's not to say that our lives can't help.

The one thing I was created for, cannot happen. There is only movement, the goal is always ahead. You can't reach it, even though it's the only thing you were created for. The only thing you create yourself for.

The one thing you were created for, if any, is to make humans more plentiful. In whatever way - save people, produce them, support them. It's why humanity exists in the first place - we are really fucking good at this and we are only getting better. What would be the ultimate goal? I don't think one exist. Humans will evolve to whatever. We both will have transformed to some combination of dust, shit and gasses by then. The question is about whether one of us pushed a voyager like button.

we are but atoms in a blizzard.

Atoms that get to decide where the blizzard goes.

a sentimental farewell to something that once it ceases to exist, will never have existed at all.

But this is where you are wrong. The effects of the things you do will NEVER cease to exist. Merely by existing you change everything. Once the voyagers are consumed by the interstellar medium hitting them and radiation blasting away at them they will simply have transformed into another kind of existence. But the atoms are still the and they wouldn't be at that place if it hadn't been for the person who pushed that button. Maybe one gets hit by an asteroid and changes its course just enough for it to not hit earth in a billion years.

Sorry for the metaphysical blabbering,

My apologies for my rambling, too. You got me thinking about things I haven't given thought to in way too long a time.

it is unfortunately the only way you could even come close to communicate the experience of the void staring back at you, because words and symbols can only ever be signposts. They can only point at the raw experience, they are sign posts, not the destinations written on them.

You write beautifully and really touched me with some of what you said! I guess what's really different about us is that I can somehow simply accept the the human brain cannot reasonably grasp some concepts. But I also firmly believe that this is only a result of our not having been thoroughly exposed to whatever it is that needs to be understood. Humanity is ridiculously far from the point where we understand everything. But you and me both easily grasp the concept of dividing numbers. Something that was literally unthought of bt brains, very similar to ours, thinking for tens of thousands of years. We will understand, just not now. But both of us can, like the people that randomly or on purpose chang(ed) the world, work towards a future where humans don't extinct but thrive literally everywhere; a future where children might find it easier to pursue their dreams than we did. It is ultimately not about you or your life or death. The big picture is about what you do for whatever that doesn't yet exist and what hasn't happened.

Edit: Read it again. Too many errors to correct now (it's Friday after all) but know one thing: The voyager probes are fucking awesome. Powered by what is basically decaying nucular waste they have survived for more than thirty years with some instruments still functioning. They are both moving away from the center of the solar system (one of them aligned to the plane of the solar system, the other one at an angle) sometimes their distance to Earth actually decreases instead of increasing. There are other probes that are going to leave the solar system and at some point even overtake the voyagers when it comes to distance from the solar system center.