tullis@uiucdcs.cs.uiuc.edu (10/10/86)
Since this notesfile on many systems recently shifted from net.origins to talk.origins; and since some sites didn't make the switchover very quickly, I will repost my original "what is LIFE" article. It seems this notesfile has drifted far away from its beginnings, which were to be discussing origins. Either it rambles into long pedantic arguements about whether there is or is not a god or God, and what he/she looks like and eats for breakfast; or we get long `scientific' ramblings about punctuated or periodic or gradual evolution (assumed as Law, like Law of Gravity, rather than theory); or totally psuedo-scientific or quasi-mystical bullshit about the `felt affect of gravity', etc. So, I challenge anyone who reads this notesfile to the following challenge. The challenge is: What is LIFE? If we want to discuss the origin of life...we should know what this `life' stuff is. Think conceptually and abstractly, in the sense that if (a definite hypothetical example) we go (someday) to other planets both in this and other solar systems, how will we recognize primitive life forms? Some things are definitely alive (I am, and you presumably are if you are reading this). But how do we definitely draw the line between life and non-life? What properties does a system have to have to be A LIVING ORGANISM? What is LIFE?
ubi@sri-unix.ARPA (Ron ueberschaer) (10/11/86)
What's life? Good question. Life is something that grows and changes. Like a solar system. Wrong. Life is something made up of biological cells. Like a virus? Wrong? To me, life is that quality which one ascribes to an object for which s/he cannot *fully* explain its (1) movement, (2) adaptation, (3) growth, and/or (4) ability to postpone or delay its detioration. Utilization of the term implies the possibility of God. And so we may resume the debate...