Life, what is life?

[Bri w]

Last night's alcoholic discussion somehow got onto what defines life at its most basic level, and what is a sentinent living being. Thankfully it went off at a tangent but here's one to ponder.

If a sentinent being has the biological part controlled by the electrical part, is a battery a living being? It has a "live" terminal, and when flat it is considered "dead." And on a more philosophical level, if the brain is made up of various electrical charges whizzing around a biological matrix, is it possible that a matrix exists in a battery?

And for the tree huggers out there, does electricity exist in plants etc, and are they sentinent on a very basic level?

Apologies if the questions cause any brain ache... I'm off to the pub now to top up.

[daveyrach]

I think i saw something on telly that said plants are sentient and can think and feel for themselves! As for batteries i doubt it they cnt think for themselves. :-S

[Shawthing]

The concept of sentience involves some form of physiological state of existence or some sort of capacity for thinking and/or feeling by extreme/complex chemical processes.

Life is the state or quality that distinguishes beings or organisms from inorganic matter, characterized chiefly by metabolising, growing, and the ability to reproduce itself and respond to external stimulus.

So although we use generic terminology to describe inanimates as having function or not, a battery's simple chemical process does not make it trully alive.
Where is the boundary however, is a matter for conjecture and many more empty bottles/ pint glasses.

Originally Posted by Bri w

Last night's alcoholic discussion somehow got onto what defines life at its most basic level, and what is a sentinent living being. Thankfully it went off at a tangent but here's one to ponder.

If a sentinent being has the biological part controlled by the electrical part, is a battery a living being? It has a "live" terminal, and when flat it is considered "dead." And on a more philosophical level, if the brain is made up of various electrical charges whizzing around a biological matrix, is it possible that a matrix exists in a battery?

And for the tree huggers out there, does electricity exist in plants etc, and are they sentinent on a very basic level?

I'll have a pint of what that lot over there are drinking please barman.

Originally Posted by Bri w

I'm off to the pub now to top up

That's a good idea Bri!

[Jayneflakes]

What are the key indicators of life?

Movement
Respiration
Sensitivity
Cells
Growth
Excretion
Reproduction
Nutrition
for it to be living it must conform to most, if not all of these rules.

Some organisms are difficult to classify, such as Virus which is often just an RNA strand in a protein shell that infects living cells and uses the cells ribosomes to build new RNA strands from amino acids. Effectively paracitising the cell.

For what makes up conscious thought, try Decartes and go from there! I think, there for I am. More appropriate for you lot, I drink there for I am.

[andrewsmith]

Originally Posted by The Idle Biker

I'll have a pint of what that lot over there are drinking please barman.

Same here!

[Bri w]

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

What are the key indicators of life?

Movement
Respiration
Sensitivity
Cells
Growth
Excretion
Reproduction
Nutrition
for it to be living it must conform to most, if not all of these rules.

Some organisms are difficult to classify, such as Virus which is often just an RNA strand in a protein shell that infects living cells and uses the cells ribosomes to build new RNA strands from amino acids. Effectively paracitising the cell.

For what makes up conscious thought, try Decartes and go from there! I think, there for I am. More appropriate for you lot, I drink there for I am.

But you need to think outside the box (specially for Messie) Jayne. We humans have labelled what life is but is that just it, a label. What is to stop the charged matrix in a battery actually being a thought, which in itself generates another thought and then another thought. And then us humans use the battery, and kill the thought. A bit abstract and poorly explained.

Another one; could it be that we are actually cells in the body of some huge being, just as we have red/white cells in our own blood.

I knew I shouldn't have gone out this afternoon for a top up.

[Jayneflakes]

Originally Posted by Bri w

could it be that we are actually cells in the body of some huge being, just as we have red/white cells in our own blood.

I knew I shouldn't have gone out this afternoon for a top up.

Go and read...

James Lovelock has argued that we are all part of a vast system, interacting and with every other aspect of the life on our planet. That is about as close to being a cell as you are likely to be.

For multicellular organisms that are made up of individual organisms, have a look at Corals and Jelly fish. Some of them can be quite unusual.

Sorry if I do not fit in with your ideas, I am rather boringly educated in the Life Sciences and the idea of a battery that can think although making a great idea for a Sci Fi story, would be just that, Sci Fi.

Maybe with the continued development of Computer Technology we will one day have machines that can simulate intelligence to such a degree that they appear to be sentient? If we do create such an intelligence, so we then have a right to keep it confined in a laboratory? Would it have rights as given to human intelligence and would it be allowed to vote? It worries me that we could have the potential to create a new form of sentience and then no doubt be prejudiced against it!

Originally Posted by Jayneflakes

It worries me that we could have the potential to create a new form of sentience and then no doubt be prejudiced against it!

Or worse, it breaks free, takes over and we end up in a war with terminators where we don't have the luxury of time travel and sending them back to help us.