The Universe/God/Ulimate Reality is trying to understand Itself. Sentience is part of that evolutionary process. Our Purpose is to evolve beyond our selfishness and biologically-driven obsession with individual survival and procreation to where we can see The Universe as it Truly Is. To stop being the flute player who obsesses about his or her own part to the exclusion of everything else.....to becoming a musician that hears the entire symphony, and is at peace with their part in the music. (Thanks for the metaphor, Tolkien) In Buddhism, this is called "Enlightenment" or "Awakening". What is the point? The end of the suffering brought on by the illusion of isolation and of material existence. A problem that---as one of my favorite sci-fi characters once said----[i]"You must **understand** your way out of." [/i]