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From: bjm@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Bruce McAdam)
Subject: Re: Life and reproduction (was Re: Internet alive?
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Date: Mon, 4 Dec 1995 12:14:19 GMT
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Roman Gollent writes
> Your view of reproduction is very limited.  You forget that there a
> millions of cells that are reproducing in your body at any given
> moment.  Without such reproduction, you would quickly cease to exist.
[And other people have also been arguing over definitions of what it is
 to be alive]

I think this argueing over the definition of 'life' is pretty stupid.

The word 'life' has been used by different people to mean slightly different
things for hundreds (thousands?) of years and there is no way to come up
with a simple description in terms of other words which everyone will be
happy with.  The same is true of all words, if you are using a word in a
particular manner you should take the time to explain exactly what you mean
so that you don't end up argueing at cross-purposes with someone who
understands it in a different way and so that you don't arrogantly assume
that other people have no right to use the word in the way they want.

My own use of the word:

Life is an attribute of an extended system such as a germ-line or eco-system
(it is seen in the individuals but requires the whole environment) it arises 
within an evolving system (in nature this is the only process which can create
this sort of complexity) and is apparent in the complexity of the system.

Life is not a distinct attribute, some things may be viewed as being very alive
(such as people) and some not very alive (viri or perhaps trees).  It is not
neccessary to decide how alive somthing is, it is more useful to measure
a particular quantitative property (or several) associated with to get a measure
of how alive somthing is in a particular way.

-- 
   ___          ___     Bruce J. McAdam
__/__ \__    __/__ \___ Computer Science Undergraduate
_____|_| \__/_____| |__ The University of Edinburgh
  \____| |_____| |_/    bjm@dcs.ed.ac.uk
     \___/  \___/       http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~bjm/

(excuse my speling)
