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Proteins (Or the ability to make them) is not requisite for life, nor are nerve impulses, nor is evolution. If we encountered an immortal (Does not evolve), st
by alextheparrot 9y ago
Proteins (Or the ability to make them) is not requisite for life, nor are nerve impulses, nor is evolution. If we encountered an immortal (Does not evolve), sterile (Does not reproduce), silicon-based alien (No proteins), that would most certainly be heralded as finding extraterrestrial life.
Reasoning about much large systems than our own is difficult. Imagine a bacteria attempting to reason about a human - the existence of fluid transport and centralized heating may seem a bit odd, as bacteria have developed to solve an entirely different class of problems at the organism level.
- Falling3 9y agoI'm not necessarily disagreeing, but what's the definition of life you're saying that would satisfy?
- aoeuasdf1 9y agoThe "I'll know it when I see it" variety.
- alextheparrot 9y agoI don't have one. The normal definitions of life are useful approximations of some property, but we should always be reminded that they are just that, approximations.
- honestoHeminway 9y agoWhat if a stable exotic location exist, where chemisty is able to form boolean processes.. is that live, if it computes and thinks, and is still just a huge state machine.