We all do... - What is life?

What is life?

Finally, Robert achieved his objective: Endless white sand, sunlight sparking in crystal clear water and the sound of waves clashing against the beach mixed with the singing of birds. He has no option but to say a phrase, an obvious, classic one. "ah! this is life Mary!".

Upon this classic and, in the best of cases, yearly situation, one wonders, first, about the obvious. Why does Robert spend so much time in activities that do not satisfy him, that do not make him happy? Why does Robert work the whole year only thinking about these ephemeral and desired moments of joy and happiness? Put it in simple words: Why does Robert work? Since this is a rather complicated question, lets leave it aside for a moment and focus in another one, that is directly impossible to reply.

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Obviously, Robert relates living with being happy. Yet, we know that it's a metaphorical use of words, like a wish that declares this moment as the template for the rest of his life, his "being alive". In his unhappy office days and many other "bad moments" he is also alive. Life -his life- covers much more than that majestic moment that he defines poetically as such.And he knows it.

A bird passes by in flight, and he cannot waste time thinking about those dilemmas. He may have good and bad fishing days, but he does not have a moment of the year where he can grab a beer, glance the horizon thinking: "this is life". But, he's alive, isn't he? Since he was born, until he dies, all his days will be life for him even if he's not conscious, aware of his existence (at least, not in the way we are). Same happens to the fish that will be his lunch today. Those animals are incapable of thinking metaphorically (or literally): "this is life", they ARE alive, in the case of the fish, until the bird decides. We can apply the same idea to ALL the creatures of the known Universe. Conscious or not of the fact, they all are -we are- alive. Now, the question is, why? Why is ANYTHING alive? What is the difference between something living and something dead, or something that was never alive? What in heck is LIFE?

This question has already been asked, several times; and a broad spectrum of conversations were created, the ones that make science and philosophy, push in the same direction; and depending whom you ask to -and when-, you're getting a different response. From a philosophical point of view, the axis rotates around trying to understand "the meaning of life" and why do we give such importance to this question, basically "what is life itself". Science, instead, attempts to define distinctive attributes and functions to anything that is alive and the difference with the things that aren't.

If you ask a biologist, something alive must: be formed by one or more cells, be able to reproduce (multiply), evolve, have a metabolism and have an homeostatic balance. This is great, because it represents precisely what we all consider "alive".

The problem is that the Universe is not formed by cells and rocks. This definition of life leaves behind a "legal void" for many entities that resemble the ones we call "alive". What about mules, or other individuals unable to reproduce? Is it not alive? Or What if somebody decides to not have children? Is that person a zombie? Then, we face the issue from another perspective. Viruses, for example, reproduce, evolve and are built using the same "bricks" the living are made of. Shall we keep them outside of our exclusive club, because they cannot reproduce by themselves? Oh, yeah, they don't have a metabolism, but many parasites we recognize as "living" neither. And what about computer Viruses? Their functions are, identical to the biologic viruses, What is the difference other than the host? The line, gets thinner as we look at it. And there's more!

We are not simple entities attempting to stretch our time fighting off entropy, because along the way we tend to replicate (or at least, we really enjoy the practice rounds). This is our body quits, but our DNA perseveres for generations. Them it's our genes that are really "alive"? And they just swap vehicles as they mutate and evolve? What is selected, over time, is not animals, or species... It's genes.

But genes are nothing else than coded information stored in a chemical device. Is this information, "life"? Then... How alive are our computers? Why certain coded data are selected over others, being better adapted to the environment? Programs evolve, hardware evolves: to better fit the environmental needs, that are framed into human needs (as dominant species). Ideas, can be alive... Really alive.

So, we're screwed. We cannot define if life is cells and genes, or just information strings. Perhaps we cannot define it, because we only know one kind and we may need to know more to fully understand analyze and tag it. We may need to make it (close thing, if we consider AIs). I mean, to fully understand what is a tree, we had to see thousands of trees. We cannot know what life is bi just knowing one kind.

Since we've no idea about the answer, and, very probably, the question is totally wrong or even worse, it is irrelevant. Perhaps the important part is not knowing what is life, but knowing the path that it opens for us to understand how it is done; because understanding, data, is life; and our knowledge will persevere for generations. Belonging to a universe, that eventually, will understand itself.

Good luck with that.

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