What Is Life?
Sometimes the simplest questions are the most hardest to solve. For example What is Time? Or what is beyond the universe? So this question, What is Life, is extremely hard to answer definitively. Anyway I'm going to try to give my best to cast some light on this topic. I'm no expert, only a hobby philosopher who likes some challenges. I hope to bring you some new knowledge to the table and that you engage in the discussion below. So without further to do let's proceed.
What is a living being?
Erwin Schrödinger defined life like this: "Living things avoid decay into disorder and equilibrium" , like stated in his book What Is Life? The Physical Aspect of the Living Cell published in 1944.
So according to Schrödinger living things create order in this chaotic universe. Usually the universe is following the law of entropy: from the big bang on everything got more disordered. But then many atoms came together and eventually formed a star. Long time later with the decay of stars more atoms where created. Until one day there were planets which supported life.
Based on our current understanding all living things are made of cells. Cells are made of proteins completing various chemical reactions. All parts of a cell are in our definition not living beings. But together all these dead parts make up the living cell. If you now turn to the macro view it's the same with all living beings we know today on earth.
This is a metabolic map of a cell.
The metabolic pathway above is very simplified. It shows however that a cell is like a computer capable of doing complex task or in this case various reactions.
Entering the philosophic realm
So if all living stuff is made out of "dead" stuff, where do we draw the line between living and dead stuff? Is there maybe no dead and living stuff? My personal opinion is that all these questions are irrelevant. I think that nothing is dead or alive but rather it just is in the simplest way. After something dies it decays and eventually one day other living beings are formed with the materials. Nothing can leave or come out of nothing into this universe. I believe that everything is connected and works together.
What are your opinions? Is there a defined line between alive and dead stuff? Does this question even matter? I don't have the answers but it is exactly the thinking about these questions which let us feel alive. Feel free to leave your opinion in the comment section.
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Kind regards,
Caspar
Say we was to find a watch in a dessert. Would we think that someone dropped or left this watch? Or would we suppose that the watch came by itself? Ofcourse no person with a inc of knowledge would say that the watch just emerged from the depths of the sand. All the intricate detailed architecture could not simply have existed from the metals that lay buried in the earth. The watch must have been manufactured. Likewise If this same watch is telling us the accurate time we expect the manufacturer must be intelligent. Blind chance cannot produce a working watch?
The same consists of the rise and set of the sun, their actions are so regulated by specfic timings that scientists can predict in advance the exact moment of sunrise or sunset,. If a watch cannot exist without a creative maker than how can the sun behave in such a regulatory manner?. By itself I'm not to sure...
Even if we all look at things like the distance of the sun to the earth... If the earth was any closer we would burn and die if we was further away Human life would be an impossibility on the earth. Could this distance be chance?
The earth needs a protective ozone layer to stop the Ray's of the sun reaching life .. who decided this protection is required.
Not all of this was mere chance was it? It all points towards one true possibility, the existence of a GOD.
Hope we can have an healthy discussion :)
i believe the discussion about a GOD is irrelevant. there must be a greater conscious force and i believe we together are god. every single living has this force. so all forces in this universe combined = GOD.
i also believe that our consciousness doesn't end with the end of our physical body. our consciousness didn't come from nothing. consciousness is our greatest mystery. we will never be able to answer what it is because we are part of this mystery.
thanks for your engagement @jawaida ;)
Tiny borderline between alive and dead. Agreeing 100% with "Entering the philosophic realm". Thx for great article! Upvote Follow completed.
thanks alex! will check out you page! :)
Nice work mate...
It's good to read about life in the of Science...
Upvoted & Following
thanks, will follow you to! :)
Being alive is all about being run by genetic code, either DNA or RNA. I think that's a pretty clear line.
but the dna itself is made of proteins which can't do anything on their own. but i also believe dna is fundamental. i believe the meaning of life is to pass information (DNA) to further generations and to adapt to the surroundings.
DNA is not made of proteins.
yes true, they are made of nucleic acids, but they still are made out of "unalive" matter...
so this means fruits are alive, plants are alive, etc.
Of course they are.
Hi @casparleuzinger, I think that its the correlative state of the dead parts that define whether they are dead or alive, alone they are dead, together they form something greater that transcends that state. Definately an interesting subject though..
thanks nick for your reply!
great thought never thought about it this way! i will follow you for sure! :)