Univeral Definition of Life

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David_the_simple
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Univeral Definition of Life

Post by David_the_simple »

Throughout history, perspectives have been skewed with the paradigms of the day. In an attempt to think outside the box and distill down to the most basic definition of life, consider what life does and not what it looks like or how it is made.

"Life is that which maintains itself"

By inference, to maintain itself would require energy and a metabolism of sorts. No reason to clutter the definition by adding this.

The definition does not eliminate auxiliary functions like motion, assembling protein, or reproduction. No reason to clutter the definition by adding these.

This definition covers various scenarios:

1. The natural transition from primordial soup of non-living chemicals to the first 'what-ever'. There is a clear cut criterion for that living system, if an outside stimulus was applied to the system and it responded and persisted as system, then that system is alive.

2. Life forms do not need to replicate or reproduce. Donkeys are sterile and cannot reproduce, yet they are alive. Someday, we may invent or discover a machine that is alive, but does not replicate. Reproduction is a function of life that allows many of them. This would help explain why the first non-reproducing life forms are so hard to find.

3. Virus do not maintain themselves, hence are not alive.

Are there any criteria that needs to be addressed or scenarios that conflict with this condensed definition?
Treatid
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Treatid »

Your definition hinges on what "maintains itself" means. A rock maintains its form far longer than most things we consider alive. It does this in a fairly passive way.

Your reference to viruses indicates that you are thinking of some sort of active process. Fair enough.

Is the Sun alive? The outward pressure of fusion generated energy balances gravitational forces to maintain a dynamic system. Granted the Gaia theory opens the possibility for considering Earth as a life form... but isn't considering any positive feedback system as being a life form going a little far?
David_the_simple
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by David_the_simple »

Admittedly, this definition appears to be too condensed at first glance.

“Maintaining” is a verb, and I was hinging on this to help condense fluff out of the definitions.

From “maintaining itself”, I was hoping that it could be inferred that “there would be changes that would otherwise effect it, but life reacts so as not to lose itself”. A rock erodes and losses itself. The sun is a balance of gravity and fusion. Should an external influence start to cool it down, the fusion would not kick up to counter act this… hence the sun is not alive. If there is a mechanism that did counter act this hypothetical cooling action, then the sun could be considered alive. Gaia, I would entertain as alive, but to the extent of the crust. James Miller's work on living systems does a good job of pointing out the hierarchy of life.

This definition was devised to help illuminate what life is without putting on pre-conceived biased filters. This would help us indentify life outside of our daily perspectives.
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Atreyu »

Here is a definition I'd like you to consider, Dave, although I'm not necessarily endorsing it right now.

"Life is that which has awareness."

Can we imagine an entity being aware but not being "alive"? And if so, can you give any examples?

I gave this definition mainly to give a psychological, rather than a "physical" perspective, which I feel "hones in" on the issue more definitively than any definition based "on the physics".
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by DarwinX »

David_the_simple wrote: 3. Virus do not maintain themselves, hence are not alive.

Are there any criteria that needs to be addressed or scenarios that conflict with this condensed definition?
Life must have originated as viruses before it evolved into higher forms. The act of mammalian fertilization is that of a virus penetrating a bacterium. Thus, the virus maintains itself with the help of the bacterium, hence it is alive.
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Consul
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Consul »

Atreyu wrote:Here is a definition I'd like you to consider, Dave, although I'm not necessarily endorsing it right now. "Life is that which has awareness." Can we imagine an entity being aware but not being "alive"? And if so, can you give any examples?
I agree with you that all conscious beings are living beings; but your definition is inadequate, because not all living beings are conscious beings. Plants aren't, and certain primitive animals aren't either.

-- Updated November 5th, 2014, 9:23 am to add the following --

"Yes, it is true that in this modern era we know unequivocally that there is no élan vital, that living things are made up of the same 'dead' molecules as non-living ones, but somehow the manner in which those molecules interact in a holistic ensemble results in something very special—us, and every other living thing on this planet."
(p. ix)



"Living and non-living entities are strikingly different..."
(p. 1)

"[T]he moment some non-metabolic (downhill) replicator acquired an energy-gathering capability, could be thought of as the moment that life began."

(p. 158)

"Abiogenesis and biological evolution are one continuous process—abiogenesis (the transformation of non-living matter to earliest life) is the low-complexity phase, biological evolution is just the high-complexity phase. That unification serves to clarify the physical process that led from simple abiotic beginnings right through to complex life. By uncovering the process that connects inanimate to animate, the essence of what it is to be alive begins to materialize. The emergence of life was initiated by the emergence of a simple replicating system, because that seemingly inconsequential event opened the door to a distinctly different kind of chemistry—replicative chemistry. Entering the world of replicative chemistry reveals the existence of that other kind of stability in nature, the dynamic kinetic stability of things that are good at making more of themselves. Exploring the world of replicative chemistry helps explain why a simple primordial replicating system would have been expected to complexify over time. The reason: to increase its stability—its dynamic kinetic stability (DKS).
Yes, living systems involve chemical reactions, lots of them, but the essence of life, the process that started it all off, was replication."

(p. 162)
 


"Biology then is just a particularly complex kind of replicative chemistry and the living state can be thought of as a new state of matter, the replicative state of matter, whose properties derive from the special kind of stability that characterizes replicating entities—DKS [dynamic kinetic stability]. That leads to a working definition of life: a self-sustaining kinetically stable dynamic reaction network derived from the replication reaction.
(pp. 163-4)

"So there we have it. Even though life is an extraordinarily complex phenomenon, the life principle is surprisingly simple. Life is just the resultant network of chemical reactions that emerges from the continuing cycle of replication, mutation, complexification, and selection, when it operates on particular chain-like molecules—in the case of life on Earth, the nucleic acids. It is possible that other chemical systems could also exhibit this property, but so far this question has yet to be explored experimentally. Life then is just the chemical consequences that derive from the power of exponential growth operating on certain replicating chemical systems."
(p. 164)


(Pross, Addy. What is Life? How Chemistry becomes Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.)
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
David_the_simple
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by David_the_simple »

Atreyu,

Thanks for the challenge. The model would progress as follows: Life would maintain itself. As the environmental conditions allowed more life, with energy and materials being pumped into the system, more complex life forms would spawn. They would be capable of more functions. At some point, reproduction would be possible. At this point the laws of natural selection would kick in. Colonies would form adding new variables/dimensions to the equation. At some point in the future, sentience would form, again adding new variables and dimensions to the equation.

If we entertain that there are more “planes” of existence, the definition should still hold. For example, sentience has a degree of resiliency and at that perspective is alive. I am aware of my existence whether in pain or pleasure.

DarwinX,

I would consider that virus or virus like compound may have existed before reproduction was possible. By themselves, they just sit there. It is the machinery of life that mis-interprets them as self and starts reproducing viruses. Hence, viruses are like a sheet of paper going through a copy machine.

-- Updated 05 Nov 2014 08:51 to add the following --

Consul: "...Life then is just the chemical consequences that derive from the power of exponential growth operating on certain replicating chemical systems."

The proposed definition of life is attempting to be more abstract and definitive. By adding what it is made of, we limit life to just those materials. By adding other functions , we limit life to just those functions. Hence, the proposed definition brings up the bare minimum to be called life. This allows a line to be drawn between non-life materials/energy/systems and living materials/energy/systems.
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Present awareness
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Present awareness »

All life is the product of reproduction, even though some life forms may not reproduce, as in the case of the donkey, the donkey still had parents. There is nothing alive, that did not come from life. Life is abundant throughout the universe and has always been, just like the universe itself has always been. Life came to Earth in the form of a frozen snowball (a comet or meteorite) Preserved in suspended animation deep within it, during it's journey thru space and seeded the ocean during the early development years of the Earths history. A comet even looks like a sperm cell with it tail and all.

All life on Earth is based on carbon, the forth most abundant element in the universe. The human body contains about 18% carbon and 60% hydrogen and oxygen, in the form of water. The only element missing from the top four, most common elements seems to be helium. Maybe helium is that which we refer to as conciousness or the soul.

I like the definition "life is that which maintains itself". Life is a state of balanced equilibrium, conversion of energy from one form to another. In one end and out the other, life is a process. Plants convert the energy from the Sun. Humans convert animal and plant proteins as well as oxygen to carbon dioxide. Life maintains itself until the cycle is broken.
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Atreyu »

Consul wrote: I agree with you that all conscious beings are living beings; but your definition is inadequate, because not all living beings are conscious beings. Plants aren't, and certain primitive animals aren't either.
I said "awareness", not "consciousness". And in this connection all conscious entities have awareness, but not all entities with awareness are necessarily conscious. Awareness is the "raw material" from which consciousness can develop.

And if you are suggesting that plants and certain primitive animals have no awareness of any kind whatsoever, I must disagree. I would argue that all entities classified as "alive" have some kind of awareness, no matter how primitive, and that it is even quite possible that there is some kind of very primitive awareness associated with all matter, a view often called "panpsychism" and of which a thread was recently in discussion here. And I would urge others here to consider this view in light of the fact that science is unable to draw any fine line between "life" and "non-life", and also of entities with or without awareness, which IMO should lead one to consider whether or not there is any fine line in the first place.
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Present awareness »

Is ice aware that it is cold or is it just a state brought about by the interaction of different envirourments, like water in a cold envirourment? It may be that the hardness of ice, only "appears" hard to concious and aware animals, like humans?

Are the chemical reaction in developing film, aware of the images they are producing, or is the image just a construct in the mind of the observer?

If you take 100 people from different cultures and put them in a room and ring a bell, all 100 people will hear a bell. Where did this knowledge of what a bell sounds like, come from? We inherite the world from our parents and the interpretations of all that we experience are already programmed into our genes.
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Consul
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Consul »

Atreyu wrote:I said "awareness", not "consciousness". And in this connection all conscious entities have awareness, but not all entities with awareness are necessarily conscious. Awareness is the "raw material" from which consciousness can develop.
And if you are suggesting that plants and certain primitive animals have no awareness of any kind whatsoever, I must disagree. I would argue that all entities classified as "alive" have some kind of awareness, no matter how primitive, and that it is even quite possible that there is some kind of very primitive awareness associated with all matter, a view often called "panpsychism" and of which a thread was recently in discussion here. And I would urge others here to consider this view in light of the fact that science is unable to draw any fine line between "life" and "non-life", and also of entities with or without awareness, which IMO should lead one to consider whether or not there is any fine line in the first place.
For example, viruses seem to be borderline cases of living beings; but I think there are and can be no borderline cases of conscious beings, which is not to say that there is no epistemic uncertainty about what animal species have (the capacity for) consciousness. But epistemic uncertainty is different from ontic indeterminacy.

The words "awareness" and "consciousness" are very often used synonymously, but I know that one can draw a meaningful distinction between consciousness-independent functional/informational awareness and experiential/phenomenal awareness = consciousness.

"Awareness can be broadly analyzed as a state wherein we have access to some information, and can use that information in the control of behavior. One can be aware of an object in the environment, of a state of one's body, or one's mental state, among other things. Awareness of information generally brings with it the ability to knowingly direct behavior depending on that information. This is clearly a functional notion. In everyday language, the term 'awareness' is often used synonymously with 'consciousness,' but I will reserve the term for the functional notion I have described here. …
Consciousness is always accompanied by awareness, but awareness as I have described it need not be accompanied by consciousness. One can be aware of a fact without any particular associated phenomenal experience, for instance. However, it may be possible to constrain the notion of awareness so that it turns out to be coextensive with phenomenal consciousness."


(Chalmers, David J. The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. p. 28)

So, in the purely functionalistic sense, even nonconscious animals and plants may be said have some kind of awareness. But their physiological sensitivity (responsiveness or reactiveness) to physical or chemical stimuli or signals (signal-information) is not to be confused with sentience in the psychological sense. Even a simple technical device such as a motion detector can be said to have functional awareness.

Panpsychism is not defined as the view that all things have functional awareness, but as the view that all things have experiential awareness = (phenomenal) consciousness.
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
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The Beast
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by The Beast »

Life is all that exist. Based on the level of organization it is divided into three kingdoms: Animal, vegetable and mineral. Evolution is the process by which the Forms act on life to create the three kingdoms. Simple: Life is the process by which matter is arranged by known and unknown principles. More, life is known and unknown principles that organize all that exist… and again, Life is all that exist. There is a very high probability that the principles or Forms became aware and evolve themselves to create new organizations. Artificial mineral in charge.
David_the_simple
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by David_the_simple »

Atreyu brought up an intriguing point about awareness.

Upon further consideration… Quantum mechanics puts a high stake on how observation influences the outcome. In addition, there appears to be a bit of ‘quantum entanglement’ going on. Phosphorescence is not spontaneous, but electrons give up their energy with an almost ‘at will’ timing. This would be an interesting thread to pursue. But as I see it, this would be a phenomenon that is substratum to life, and as such, life inherits this quality along everything else.

Given the works of Jame Miller on living systems, living systems have a hierarchy of eight levels. It may well be the same with awareness. The most fundimental awareness being quantum level, yet to be understood. higher up would include life. Higher up yet would be a the type of awareness that we hominids enjoy.
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by The Beast »

To construct a system that defines life from the awareness point of view and having James Miller’s descriptions as a starting point is possible. In the whole picture of life it would not be much more than a module. To decompose this module into other modules of which some are more cohesive than others is worthy of philosophical discourse. The first thing is to define relationships like the relationship between awareness and information. For example: bacteria have a sense of hot and cold. By applying hot and cold one could use bacteria to simulate 0,1, neither, both. My understanding of systems is that the bacteria will adapt to some unknown result. A learning phase could implement tools of control structures to find out variables in communication cohesiveness. Will the bacteria respond to reward? Will I be surprise if this module has been already constructed? No. Will the bacteria establish a relationship between reward and heat? Is this another type of awareness when the symmetry of response is broken? Is there a bacteria hierarchy? Do all bacteria respond equally as a group?
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Re: Univeral Definition of Life

Post by Mgrinder »

It's a hard question. The only answer that makes some sense to me is that life is something that uses energy in a certain way. It's the "certain way" part that is most vexing to define. The strange thing is: we know the "way" life uses energy when we see it, but any attempt to define it more precisely doesn't seem to work.

For instance, the "certain way" that energy is expended in an organism includes the organism maintaining itself in a certain body shape, expending energy in order to get food, reproducing if possible, making new cells to replace old ones, adapting to the changing temperature, and so on.

Fire doesn't work in this certain way, neither do rocks. At the same time, the above is not nearly an exhaustive list, nor can I represent the "pattern" or "way" or "form" of energy use over time that I am pointing to mathematically. However, there seems to be a definite pattern of energy use that organisms engage in, but how to define it seems a mystery.

And also, quite mysteriously, we know this "pattern" or "way" when we see it. If we could only represent this "pattern" mathematically, then we would be able to define life, I would think.
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