Just What Is Life?

[BeyGon]

Originally Posted by john70t

Sand is coral.

some white sandy beaches, are you sure all sand is coral?

[john70t]

Not a geologist or oceanographer, but I'd guess a good portion is from eons ago.

[Baz]

To be one with nature.......your soul embraced by mother ocean.....

[Baz]

Doesn't get any better than this....surfing is life.....

[Hendog]

I don't surf, but any enjoyment of the great outdoors certainly enriches life.

I break Life down to our "personal relationships".

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

How would one define life? What does it mean to be alive? John Keosian, author of The origin of Life wrote "The origin of life...as an examination of the mechanisms operating in the transition of matter to higher and higher levels of organizations."

So what is life? I was thinking about what the properties of what it means to be living...
To Be Able To Reproduce
To Be Able To Change/Adapt even Mutate
To Be Able to Move, Adjust Position
To Metabolize - respire, injest, digest to sustain or grow, excrete
To Grow and experience a Life Cycle
To Respond to Stimuli
To Maintain, Stabilize Internal Functions

Are there exceptions? I guess it could be said that someone in a coma or life support doesn't fit the criteria, but I guess the whole may not, but various parts may - cells that is.

So what is the criteria for something to be alive?

time to drop a hit of acid !

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by sammyg2

Dude. what's with all this hypothetical deep stuff lately. You looking for some help with something?

Try to follow the rules, try to do the right things, and all the answers will be clear eventually.
Faith = Strength.

Dude! When have I not been deep? well, there was the roof girl incident of 2010, the phone on the bumper incident of 2009, the blatant bashing of REDUFO in 2008...not to mention the countless references to my sexual proclivities with my girlfriends butt or my mistress’s butt, my fascination with spiders, bragging about my kiddos and complaining about my wife...OK, I agree, I am shallow...

but actually, you guys provide great insight and banter for certain projects...

[epbrown]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

So what is the criteria for something to be alive?

There isn't any, same as there isn't any meaning. It's not a destination, direction, or definition. What's the point of trying to sift, separate and label existence? This is alive, that isn't. This is sentient, that isn't. So what? What is, is, and our classifications don't change that, and are irrelevant to reality. The color blue isn't blue because we call it blue - it just is. We could change our minds tomorrow and decide to call it something else, and the sky would look the same.

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by LeeH

A close friend recently found out that she has cancer. She's still waiting on staging, but she does know that the surgery she just had was not able to remove all of the cancer. While not directly answering the question posed by the OP, I found her thoughts extremely moving:

"The Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death. I think that my sins are monstrously huge and that this disease and likely death is my punishment. What sins are those, you might ask? I have not lived enough. I have not loved enough. I have built walls "for protection" that kept me from truly enjoying life. I never took risks, real risks, in life, in work, in friendship and in love. I have the best family in the world and yet I don't spend time with them. I have made some wonderful, wonderful friends whom I love dearly but I never reach out to them to stay in touch, to stay connected. I never, call, I never write. Nothing. I've seen the pain and disappointment of the world but not the joy and the opportunity. Life offers you everything and I took nothing. I've known this and done nothing to correct it. Didn't know how. Still don't know how. But now I fear I have no time to learn. "

Holy smokes.... What a powerful post.

angela

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by john70t

Not a geologist or oceanographer, but I'd guess a good portion is from eons ago.

Yes, some beaches are made of coral but not all sand is coral by a long shot. There are no coral sands on the west coast of the U.S. because the waters are too cold to support coral reef growth. The sand on the beaches wash down from the inland rivers and are deposited on the shoreline. Sand is really a term related to size of particles, not their composition and, in general, sand particles are most commonly from igneous rocks, not coral.

[RWebb]

some sand was life, but most isn't

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

Dude! When have I not been deep? well, there was the roof girl incident of 2010, the phone on the bumper incident of 2009, the blatant bashing of REDUFO in 2008...not to mention the countless references to my sexual proclivities with my girlfriends butt or my mistress’s butt, my fascination with spiders, bragging about my kiddos and complaining about my wife...OK, I agree, I am shallow...

but actually, you guys provide great insight and banter for certain projects...

Guys, you should all know by now that Lubey is the precipitant in our knowledge pool. Just like the stuff you add to cloudy water to cause the particles in suspension to join together and fall out of suspension, Lubey's queries cause the thousands of ideas floating around the ether to come together around a single concept until the weight of the discussion causes the whole thread to sink. In the mean time, he monitors, adds, and draws inspiration from the process--then writes a book. I, for one, think we all should be getting some royalties!

[72doug2,2S]

Great song

[M.D. Holloway]

Originally Posted by ossiblue

Guys, you should all know by now that Lubey is the precipitant in our knowledge pool. Just like the stuff you add to cloudy water to cause the particles in suspension to join together and fall out of suspension, Lubey's queries cause the thousands of ideas floating around the ether to come together around a single concept until the weight of the discussion causes the whole thread to sink. In the mean time, he monitors, adds, and draws inspiration from the process--then writes a book. I, for one, think we all should be getting some royalties!

Dang! The jig is up...better find a new forumn! I hear the Mustang owners have a lot to say.


Oh come on now, don't be sad! I can't quit you guys!!! As for royalties...about the best I can do is get you drunk. So, when ever we are together your money is no good at the bar...beyond that your on your own!

[pavulon]

I think Jim Richards has it... and good news...it goes on sale about once a month!

[Dottore]

Originally Posted by LeeH

A close friend recently found out that she has cancer. She's still waiting on staging, but she does know that the surgery she just had was not able to remove all of the cancer. While not directly answering the question posed by the OP, I found her thoughts extremely moving:

"The Bible teaches us that the wages of sin is death. I think that my sins are monstrously huge and that this disease and likely death is my punishment. What sins are those, you might ask? I have not lived enough. I have not loved enough. I have built walls "for protection" that kept me from truly enjoying life. I never took risks, real risks, in life, in work, in friendship and in love. I have the best family in the world and yet I don't spend time with them. I have made some wonderful, wonderful friends whom I love dearly but I never reach out to them to stay in touch, to stay connected. I never, call, I never write. Nothing. I've seen the pain and disappointment of the world but not the joy and the opportunity. Life offers you everything and I took nothing. I've known this and done nothing to correct it. Didn't know how. Still don't know how. But now I fear I have no time to learn. "

This is really sad. And so wrong. Cancer is random. It has nothing to do with divine retribution.

Good people get cancer. Bad people get cancer. Good people die of cancer. Bad people die of cancer. Good people are cured of cancer. Bad people are cured of cancer. Cancer is random.

It is always pathetic to me to see people beat themselves up because they see their cancer as a punishment. You bring extra grief on yourself with this attitude. Grief that you don't deserve. Grief that doesn't help you.

[jyl]

Yes, that seems like misguided and defeatist thinking.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Her epiphany is an Event. Change is a process and likely the introspection that led her to the former will push her toward the latter. Have faith in her.

[M.D. Holloway]

I would venture a guess that she had a Catholic upbringing? No rag on the Catholics but in my Catholic experience it always felt like we were all consistantly being accused as sinners and that God was going to punish us and that while we could confess and try to repent we were stilled damned. Living a life by the terms of the accusor is horrible.

I guess its tough not to separate God from life and some say that God is life. I haven't a clue either way but I do know that a life of regret is no kind of life and a life of guilt and shame is no kind of life. I do hope some how she finds piece...I hope we all do.

As for the question, I was thinking more of the definition of a 'mechanical' life not a philosophical exploration ...yet it is an interesting examination in any event.

This place can be almst as good as a decent bongg hit some days!

[ossiblue]

Originally Posted by LubeMaster77

As for the question, I was thinking more of the definition of a 'mechanical' life not a philosophical exploration ...yet it is an interesting examination in any event.

This place can be almst as good as a decent bongg hit some days!

I think you already had the answer in your initial post as most biological definitions encompass the characteristics you listed, with some minor variations.

What I found interesting in this thread is how quickly the focus shifted to human life, ergo the philosophical bend, rather than all life as you intended. IIRC, it happened in the first response.