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GO FORTH AND REPRODUCE VARIOUSLY. "A clever scientist found 123 definitions for 'Life' and compared them. He found out that most of them said something about Reproduction and Evolution or Variation, so he says "Life is Self-Reproduction with Variations." https://lnkd.in/e3zZDuE View in LinkedIn

ERWIN SHRODINGER'S 1944 definition of life: that which "avoids the decay into equilibrium." A reference to the 2nd law of thermodynamics, where entropy always increases, or the continual spreading of disorder. Forget carbon, forget water. These are location effects. And forget definitions beyond this gnarly beauty. Go forth and avoid decay. https://lnkd.in/ebMm7aF View in LinkedIn

NEED A GENERAL THEORY. "We use insights from philosophical investigations into language to argue that defining 'life' currently poses a dilemma analogous to that faced by those hoping to define 'water' before the existence of molecular theory. In the absence of an analogous theory of the nature of living systems, interminable controversy over the definition of life is inescapable." https://lnkd.in/eNX5qhp View in LinkedIn

PLANETARY LIFE. "Life arising more than once from nonliving materials could occur elsewhere than Earth, but it could also have occurred on Earth. It is possible that extraterrestrial life exists and that all life nonetheless has a common ancestor. Scientists now believe that microbes can survive interplanetary journeys ensconced in meteors produced by asteroid impacts on planetary bodies containing life." https://lnkd.in/eNX5qhp View in LinkedIn

LANGUAGE IS VAGUE. "I argue that it is a mistake to try to define 'life'. Such efforts reflect fundamental misunderstandings about the nature and power of definitions. I don't think that defining "life" is a very useful activity for scientists to pursue since it is not going to tell us what we really want to know, which is "what is life." A scientific theory of life (which is not the same as a definition of life) would be able to answer these questions in a satisfying way." https://lnkd.in/eNX5qhp View in LinkedIn

NO DEFINITION. "There is still no agreed-upon definition of what we actually mean by that troublesome word “life,” let alone “synthetic life,” “artificial life,” or “life from scratch...we can define “synthetic life” as self-replicating biology based on a synthetic genome, a synthetic code-script." Synthetic life is now a new branch on the tree of life (Craig Venter). https://lnkd.in/eyZU783 View in LinkedIn

"DNA, RNA, CARBOHYDRATES AND PROTEINS are widely considered the four macromolecules absolutely essential for life as we know it. Without them "life would not exist." Another definitional trap. https://lnkd.in/ekR4TrT View in LinkedIn

DNA DOGMA OF LIFE FORMS. "Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a molecule that encodes the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and many viruses. DNA is a nucleic acid; alongside proteins and carbohydrates, nucleic acids compose the three major macromolecules essential for all known forms of life." A definitional stricture. https://lnkd.in/ePfbUir View in LinkedIn

THE GREY ZONE in biology includes prions, viruses and other creatures whose status as living things has been hotly debated. The truth is, it simply depends on what definition of life is adopted. Purely a philosophical issue, not terribly interesting in itself. But that Grey Zone is particularly interesting because it includes very unusual life forms. And these life forms have a surprising importance in thinking about Artificial Intelligence, our ultimate destination. View in LinkedIn

LEAFCUTTER ANT MONOCULTURE "whereas polyculture of several fungi could increase nutritional diversity and disease resistance of genetically variable gardens." An analog of artificial selection. https://lnkd.in/ew5j47P View in LinkedIn