h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whats your definition of "life"?
Im on a roll tonight...lol

Sandra



p.s
Im not always like this,but icant sleep and my brain is ticking over

Undead

I'm stalking you now...

"Life" in my opinion is an inter-related web of distinct, evolving, self-replicating entities.

There is some biology textbook definition that life has to have DNA, grow, respire, replicate blah blah blah. But it's a bit too strict.

You like these type of questions dontcha? Me too

Ste

No Loony, you're thinking about "zombies"

Ste

Stalk away..lol and yeah i do like these kind of questions .
Im still a newbie really (only been here about a week)and i only stumbled on this part of this site tonight . Its mad really cos when I first found it i couldntt think of aa question to ask..now theey wont stop coming! illl never get to at this rate!..lol
Maybe i should just tart mmy own philosophical questions forum and stop hoggging the space here..lol
wanna help?

life is an artificial distinction, like time, that humans plaster all over their perceptions so they can feel good or bad, hurried or efficient instead of just sleeping, eating, procreating and going to the bathroom.
Did you sleep, eat, procreat, go to the bathroom good?
No. They can't deal with questions like that.
They have to introduce culture and religion and race and product indetification into it.

I don't think she meant life as in social life. More like the biological definition. I saw somewhere there were 10 things that something was alive if it fulfilled most of those. But it is hard to define properly.

I saw that list (or something like it) years ago. The problem was, that "fire" fulfilled almost all of them, and that is not considered alive.

It may have been the reference to "tarting her own philosophical forum" that led Tonsil to thinking about social life.

Yep, fire, and crystals as well right?

I am not sure of the answer but apparently I have to get one. If anyone knows of a good retail outlet where said item can be purchased I would like to hear about it...

k

When we as living humans interact with one another, are we seperate 'living beings' interacting, or do we then become one social living being?

No wonder I find myself in the same boat as Kelli asking questions like that.

Right first things first!.."tarting " was in fact a misprint lmao..I will not be "tarting" anything now or at anytime in the future..

And yeah ur right i didnt mean social life..not sure i meant the sciebtific explanation either..more sort of what would thhe term mean to you personally .
IE life to me is being able to share happiness with others..
maybe I shouldve phrased he question a little differently ,but i was almost asleep at the time!


Sandra

Right first things first!.."tarting " was in fact a misprint lmao..I will not be "tarting" anything now or at anytime in the future..

And yeah ur right i didnt mean social life..not sure i meant the sciebtific explanation either..more sort of what would thhe term mean to you personally .
IE life to me is being able to share happiness with others..
maybe I shouldve phrased he question a little differently ,but i was almost asleep at the time!


Sandra

The Gaia theory is that all the animals and plants and such living on Earth actually works as cells in a bigger superorganism as well. So the whole Earth is in a way alive.

Some people then go on to use it to prove some nature spirit and other New Age stuff.

The scientific definition is good but it isn't very inclusive, some people, plants and animals cannot reproduce for whatever reason, does that make them dead?

You should start a philosophy forum serephina, I would join.

As said before, science has never really made a good definition of it. One of the reasons exo-biology will have trouble.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans...

That's a good definition

Or what happens when you leave something in the fridge for too long.

Well now honey, Life is all about the birds and bees. First the bee stings the bird and then there's honey, honey. This theory however does not account for frogs or flowers or provide a very good basis for a theory of European Union. It's a really big question or at least as my old gal used today, it's almost too big.

jwf