What is Life?

[thedoc]

Life is the highest form of matter. The form in which it has figured out its own existence.

Life is not a type of matter. No hydrogen is the highest form of matter since it is the most basic, the most abundant and the most simple. When compressed it gives light the most simple and purest form of energy.

Hydrogen is the simplest form of matter, I don't agree that there is a high or low form when it comes to matter, - or life.

[Hobbes' Choice]

Life is the highest form of matter. The form in which it has figured out its own existence.

Life is not a type of matter. No hydrogen is the highest form of matter since it is the most basic, the most abundant and the most simple. When compressed it gives light the most simple and purest form of energy.

Hydrogen is the simplest form of matter, I don't agree that there is a high or low form when it comes to matter, - or life.

Neither do I unless you state your preferences up-front. I was being playful with gimpo.

[thedoc]

Life is not a type of matter. No hydrogen is the highest form of matter since it is the most basic, the most abundant and the most simple. When compressed it gives light the most simple and purest form of energy.

Hydrogen is the simplest form of matter, I don't agree that there is a high or low form when it comes to matter, - or life.

Neither do I unless you state your preferences up-front. I was being playful with gimpo.

Not a problem, sometimes playful is more fun than serious. Sometimes I really don't want to have to think too hard.

[Ferdi]

Life is not matter. Abstracts, such as time, infinity, fear, are not matter.

[Dalek Prime]

...something you receive without having ordered but have to keep on paying for with no "Return to Sender" address on it. If life is amazing it's ONLY because it exists and for no other reason.

Nice answer. A man after my own heart.

[Pluto]

Life is a horizontal fall - Jean Cocteau

[Dalek Prime]

Life is a horizontal fall - Jean Cocteau

Onto the rocks.

[Ferdi]

...something you receive without having ordered but have to keep on paying for with no "Return to Sender" address on it. If life is amazing it's ONLY because it exists and for no other reason.

Nice answer. A man after my own heart.

You received life because your parents "fired the boiler that set the train in motion" and their parents before that, etc. Natural causes with mankind involved.

[thedoc]

...something you receive without having ordered but have to keep on paying for with no "Return to Sender" address on it. If life is amazing it's ONLY because it exists and for no other reason.

Nice answer. A man after my own heart.

You received life because your parents "fired the boiler that set the train in motion" and their parents before that, etc. Natural causes with mankind involved.

Wow! a Railroad reference, Dalek is a Dr. Who reference, and I am an enthusiast of both, and a USPS reference, my father was a mail carrier for many years. I just wish I had something more to add to the discussion, except that when life starts is a very contentious subject, and I don't think the OP will settle it for many people, there is just too much emotion involved. FYI I did finally read the whole OP, and the question of when does life start, is still up in the air.

Dalek, is that both of them, or doesn't that apply to you?

[sthitapragya]

I think what the Op seems to be confused about is brain activity. Once the brain stops working, and shuts down the functions of the body, the abstract life he is talking about ends. The cells continue being alive. At the risk of sounding insensitive, it would be a comparison between Stephen Hawking and a brain dead person. One lives and the other is being kept alive.

[henry quirk]

Life is a mechanism for, a means of, moving heat around.

Some of that life gets uppity, thinkin' it has some grand or great purpose.

In its zeal, uppity life starts pushin' other life around.

Some of that pushed around life pushes back.

Welcome to planet Dirt.

[Dalek Prime]

What, the references? Doc, we're all just fish swimming upstream, doing what were doing until we can't swim anymore. Some spawn, some don't. Some swim the wring way, and some get stuck or caught. Some can see through the murk better than others. Take it from a Piscean; just keep swimming... I could go on, but that's enough metaphor for a lifetime.

[Ferdi]

thedoc wrote on Jun 27 at7:43am

”. . . . when life starts is a very contentious subject, and I don't think the OP will settle it for many people, there is just too much emotion involved. FYI I did finally read the whole OP, and the question of when does life start, is still up in the air.”

I wrote in my topic : “ . . . . a baby does not reach the “new individual” stage until “its own life” has entered at birth . . . . “.
Life starts at birth. Life stops at death.

[Pluto]

[quoteWelcome to planet Dirt.][/quote]

It's mostly water, so maybe it'd be:

Welcome to planet SEA or just C.

[Dalek Prime]

I really don't like the term 'life'. I prefer 'existence'. Though non-living things exist, so perhaps 'existence of consciousness'... Meh, too long. Perhaps 'excon' for short?