What is life?
What is life?
Do we have anything resembling a scientific definition for life? We have many definitions but if we think of it as a physicist then the first question is whether or not an atom is "alive". Atoms are not considered to be alive. If we think about it as a mathematician then we might wonder why certain patterns of information are considered alive while other patterns are not considered to be alive. If we take a panpsychist view of life then even the atoms which are fundamental particles of matter could be considered to be alive. Take panphysicalism to the logical conclusion and you may arrive at genopsychism which is to take the position that DNA because it is "self acting" is alive.
Life as a state of matter?
Because life is so difficult to define we can discuss whether life is just a state of matter? Is there something about living matter which differs from non-living matter? Clearly there is. The thermodynamic argument is that life produces what is known as "heat dissipation". This seems to define what life is by what life does physically.
Conclusion
In my conclusion none of these theories are sufficient. We can apply human thermodynamics to describe life in the language of physics. We can even determine what life does from physics; "heat dissipation". Unfortunately this doesn't go far enough. The one thing I can say is life appears to be a form of matter which is unique. It is clear that while a rock can computer and a mammal with a nervous system can compute that there is a huge difference between the two even if from a physics and mathematics perspective it's not distinguishable. We do not yet know clearly what life is (yet we do have a good idea what life isn't). We know there is a distinction between living matter and non-living matter.
What do you think? Do you have any insight on these questions? Feel free to share so we can have a better understanding.
References
Varela, F. G., Maturana, H. R., & Uribe, R. (1974). Autopoiesis: the organization of living systems, its characterization and a model. Biosystems, 5(4), 187-196.
Sekhar, D. M. R. (2011). Genome and Plausible Genopsych. Journal of Consciousness Exploration & Research, 2(10).
Thims, L. (2009). Life: a Defunct Scientific Theory. Journal of Human Thermodynamics, 5, 20-21.
Morgan, T. Hierarchical thermodynamics This is a featured page.
England, J. L. (2013). Statistical physics of self-replication. The Journal of chemical physics, 139(12), 09B623_1.
DeLife das Leben Das Leben ist natürlich kurz und manchmal beschissen aber leben will mann trotzdem egal wie es kommt das Leben geht weiter
Life is the aspect of existence that processes, acts, reacts, evaluates, and evolves through growth (reproduction and metabolism). The crucial difference between life and non-life (or non-living things) is that life uses energy for physical and conscious development. Life is anything that grows and eventually dies, i.e., ceases to proliferate and be cognizant.
I don't think life can be contained by a concept, rather, life contains all concepts.
And that's even if we just consider a single living being, what about all that it experiences, what about all the variations of life? What about life as a whole, as a symphony of different beings?
It boggles the mind, and proves a higher intelligence imo
I stuck nearly 20 years ago on this, and up to now find no better.: http://www.bigear.org/CSMO/HTML/CS02/cs02p35.htm - strongly recommend it.
We can define life in terms of proactivity and free-will. The clear difference between living entity and a lifeless one is that for the same exact triggers at the same conditions the lifeless entity have only one single response that can’t be changed every time the same trigger arises, while living entites are not bound to a single response to a trigger at the same conditions. They have the free will to chose how to respond and they have the ability to make experience out of past feedbacks which allow them to choose a dufferent response each time and this is how they develop.
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Life has a complex definition , life is view from different paspective in different field of study . But as for me been a human I see life as the dissipation of heat due to the reaction of certain organs and atoms in the form of chemical reaction
Life O life, what can I say? Life is a state of cognitive memory because without this, no one knows he is alive. Knowing you are live is living life😂
@eurogee
I really like the discussion about what our definition of life is. Most people just assume that we have a good definition that applies to all organisms, but it gets really interesting when we look at organisms such as viruses. They have no metabolism, leave no waste products, and have next to no biological functions, but yet they carry genetic material, and are able to reproduce (with the help of a host).
Most people don't consider a virus to be a form of life, but I still find it strange to classify it as an inanimate object since it can move and reproduce.
In the genome of most viruses there are proteins coded which help them to e.g. get out of the host or protect their genome, so there are biologic functions but they are very minimalistic.
I think anybody with some knowledge about viruses and their interactions with the hosts would think viruses are a form of life.
Hmm, I have always heard the opposite when I studied microbiology; that viruses are not considered life due to the fact that they don't have a metabolism, or are able to reproduce without a host. But it's really up to each and everyone what they want to think of as life I suppose.
Interesting. Agree, not worthwhile to start a dispute on this :)
giving the definition of life is very difficult,
by the Sufis defines life by "hayatun yasbutu fi syai in" the circumstances in which the soul (spirit) is located (see syarqawi ala syarhil hudhudi) original text in Arabic,
living according to the philosophy of science "as-syai al-mutaharrik bil iradah" something that can move with his will (see: Idhahul Mubham) Arabic text.
with a definition of plant philosophy not a living thing, because plants have no life (with the above definition).
may all need to examine more in the meaning of life, yours @dana-edwards is very simple, but very difficult to answer ,,
greetings and friendship