Life-in the most vague sense

[noexpert]

I understand the basics of biology, but want to get more to the root of it. What is life exactly? What I mean is what is it about an assimilation of inanimate objects that makes them all work in an organized fashion? How can a group of non-living things all of the sudden become living? It just doesn't make sense to me...

[Illiad]

It doesn't make sense to everyone else either. I only studied biology in high school and I think biology only explains the mechanism of life, not it's origin.

How can a group of non-living things all of the sudden become living?

DNA i guess, if u meant why, its a philosophical question where god often comes to play. I have yet to hear one explanation that I fully subscribe to though. Feel free to ponder with the rest of us.

[Vox]

I understand the basics of biology, but want to get more to the root of it. What is life exactly? What I mean is what is it about an assimilation of inanimate objects that makes them all work in an organized fashion? How can a group of non-living things all of the sudden become living? It just doesn't make sense to me...

 

If life would make perfect sense to you or it would not make any sense to you, how life would be different compred what it is now?

[noexpert]

 

DNA i guess, if u meant why, its a philosophical question where god often comes to play. I have yet to hear one explanation that I fully subscribe to though. .

 

That is what I was afraid of. I do believe in a supreme being, but I also think that there is a rational explanation for everything, including life as an emergent property.

[Eclogite]

What is life exactly?.

There was a conference on exobiology sponsored by NASA five or six years ago where the participants were asked to define life. If I recall correctly the ninety five participants cam up with one hundred and eight definitions. I think you get the point.

 

What I mean is what is it about an assimilation of inanimate objects that makes them all work in an organized fashion?...

Chemistry.

 

How can a group of non-living things all of the sudden become living?

It likely wasn't sudden. It likely took a very long time and involved many complex reactions and pathways, interlinked in increasingly intricate ways, cumulatively building on the chemistry that had gone before. Edited August 15, 2010 by Eclogite

[CraigD]

Welcome to hypography, noexpert! Enjoy! :thumbs_up

What is life exactly?

I think, because this question is so often asked in a deep, philosophical context, we often overlook that in a biological context, it has a short, simple answer:

 

Life is – more precisely, living things are – that which:

• Metabolize – convert some energy source, such as sunlight or sugar, into mechanical work
  
• Organize – build orderly structures and orchestrates orderly processes
  

How living things do this, and how their ancestors first began doing it, are questions with long, complicated, and to varying degrees speculative answers, which can occupy years of study and imagining. A good starting place, I think, is to ask the question, “did the earliest living things metabolize because they were organized, or become organized because they metabolized?” A interesting exploration of this question, and speculative conclusion that the first living things began metabolizing first, was published in 2007 by Robert Shapiro, and discussed in the hypography thread 12575.

[Vox]

Welcome to hypography, noexpert! Enjoy! :thumbs_up

 

I think, because this question is so often asked in a deep, philosophical context, we often overlook that in a biological context, it has a short, simple answer:

 

Life is – more precisely, living things are – that which:

• Metabolize – convert some energy source, such as sunlight or sugar, into mechanical work
  
• Organize – build orderly structures and orchestrates orderly processes
  

How living things do this, and how their ancestors first began doing it, are questions with long, complicated, and to varying degrees speculative answers, which can occupy years of study and imagining. A good starting place, I think, is to ask the question, “did the earliest living things metabolize because they were organized, or become organized because they metabolized?” A interesting exploration of this question, and speculative conclusion that the first living things began metabolizing first, was published in 2007 by Robert Shapiro, and discussed in the hypography thread 12575.

 

I would daringly say that the question " What is Life ", is actually a question "Who am I or what am I" in disguise. Let´s assume that science had found explanation to the "origins of life". "I would bet" that it would not satisfy human mind due it would not answer clearly to the real question "Who am I". I suppose the question "Who am I" is the real driver within science and within religions. Although the approach to find the answer, between these to "groups", is somewhat different :hihi:

Edited August 16, 2010 by Vox

[Illiad]

Say, for example, your question is answered, Life is caused by A. Then what caused B? B is caused by C. Then what caused C? C is caused by D and also on. No it would not end when I run out of alphabets. It suggest either OR both

1. There is no such thing as 'the' ultimate truth

2. Our current mode of questioning is wrong (whether there is another way to approach this question I'm not sure. I don't like using religion)