Disease doesn't kill

[Enmos]

What is life?

The American Heritage Science Dictionary
life
1. The properties or qualities that distinguish living plants and organisms from dead or inanimate matter, including the capacity to grow, metabolize nutrients, respond to stimuli, reproduce, and adapt to the environment.

This is just one of many similar definitions found at dictionary.com


And,

"It has been argued extensively whether viruses are living organisms. Most virologists consider them non-living,[1][2][3] as they do not meet all the criteria of the generally accepted definition of life. For example, unlike living organisms as defined, viruses do not respond to changes in the environment nor do they consist of cells, generally regarded as the fundamental unit of life."
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virus


I thought this was common knowledge though :shrug:

 

[DeepThought]

The American Heritage Science Dictionary
life
1. The properties or qualities that distinguish living plants and organisms from dead or inanimate matter,

"Because the human beings, my son, they believe everything is alive. Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone. And also the things from them........ That is the way things are. But the white man, they believe EVERYTHING is dead. Stone, earth, animals. And people! Even their own people! If things keep trying to live, white man will rub them out. That is the difference."

- Old Lodge Skins

 

[Enmos]

"Because the human beings, my son, they believe everything is alive. Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone. And also the things from them........ That is the way things are. But the white man, they believe EVERYTHING is dead. Stone, earth, animals. And people! Even their own people! If things keep trying to live, white man will rub them out. That is the difference."

- Old Lodge Skins

Is there any point to this ?

 

[DeepThought]

anyone want to explain this to me?

Orleander,

This cannot be explained in the way you desire.

Death is beyond cause and effect physics.

 

[shichimenshyo]

Diseases dont kill, diseases with guns do

 

[DeepThought]

Is there any point to this ?

Enmos,

It's tragic don't you think?

Spiritually our sciences are still in kindergarten.

 

[Enmos]

Enmos,

It's tragic don't you think?

Spiritually our sciences are still in kindergarten.

This has nothing to do with the topic..

Topic: Can a disease kill a human ?
Current subquestion: Are viruses considered life ?

 

[spuriousmonkey]

Why do you say that? Viruses do not meet all the criteria for life, but they are clearly organic. Outside of the host cell, a virus is just an inert bit of dna/rna.

you going to tell a fucking biologist what life is and what not? You don't even know what a virus is according to your statement.

Life is all that evolves by means of modification with descent and which shares a common ancestor. Some of these things happen to metabolize.

 

[DeepThought]

This has nothing to do with the topic..
Current subquestion: Are viruses considered life ?

American Indian perspective: viruses are alive.

 

[Enmos]

you going to tell a fucking biologist what life is and what not? You don't even know what a virus is according to your statement.

Life is all that evolves by means of modification with descent and which shares a common ancestor. Some of these things happen to metabolize.

That is not the current accepted definition though :shrug:
However, I do tend to agree to that. But then evolution must be restricted to organics (which is already so really).

 

[Enmos]

American Indian perspective: viruses are alive.

Deepthought, according to that perspective even a rock is alive.

 

[MetaKron]

"Because the human beings, my son, they believe everything is alive. Not only man and animals. But also water, earth, stone. And also the things from them........ That is the way things are. But the white man, they believe EVERYTHING is dead. Stone, earth, animals. And people! Even their own people! If things keep trying to live, white man will rub them out. That is the difference."

- Old Lodge Skins

All too true and it explains a lot. White men even define expressions of life as sick, obscene, and those who make those expressions worthy of death.

 

[spuriousmonkey]

That is not the current accepted definition though :shrug:
However, I do tend to agree to that. But then evolution must be restricted to organics (which is already so really).

No, evolution is not restricted to organics.

It's just that currently there are not so many inorganic evolutionary systems.

Some computer models mainly where algorithms live and thrive. And die the minute the computer is turned off.

What's special about life (as in life we belong to) is that it arose naturally and it is not designed.

Virus as life is also an accepted definition, and what's more, it's the only one that is relevant. The one you adhere to is contrived and artificial. It takes humans as the center of the universe and bases the definition of life on it.

It must metabolize. It must be cellular. blabla.

I piss on anthropomorphic views on life. They are the worst enemy of science.

 

[DeepThought]

Deepthought, according to that perspective even a rock is alive.

Enmos,

How do you feel about that?

 

[CharonZ]

Life is all that evolves by means of modification with descent and which shares a common ancestor.

It is a nice definition and surely not worse than most others. In other words, though any replicating system that does not build exact replicas would be considered as life. Like for instance a robot that is designed to build incomplete replicas of itself (one just have to add some kind of selective forces, for instance).

Personally (and as a biologist) I believe that a strict distinction between living and unliving is, for the most part, artificial. There appear to be different degrees, whereas viruses are essentially on the lower end. Kind of relating to the question whether a zygote is a human or not.

 

[Enmos]

No, evolution is not restricted to organics.
It's just that currently there are not so many inorganic evolutionary systems.

I agree, but life seems to be.

Some computer models mainly where algorithms live and thrive. And die the minute the computer is turned off.

Well, it's debatable whether that is life. It's not for nothing they call it artificial life.

What's special about life (as in life we belong to) is that it arose naturally and it is not designed.

Hmm yes. It seems to me they there need to be two separate forms of life, organic life and artificial life. They are not the same thing, not yet.

Virus as life is also an accepted definition, and what's more, it's the only one that is relevant. The one you adhere to is contrived and artificial. It takes humans as the center of the universe and bases the definition of life on it.

It must metabolize. It must be cellular. blabla.

There still seems to be controversy about whether viruses can be called life though.

I piss on anthropomorphic views on life. They are the worst enemy of science.

Believe it or not, but I couldn't agree more.

 

[Enmos]

Enmos,

How do you feel about that?

I feel it is bullshit.

 

[fo3]

Believe it or not, but I couldn't agree more.

Thirded. Insisting that life is restricted to the bounds that we are witnessing at the moment is just another form of insisting that humans are in some fundamental way special in nature.

 

[spuriousmonkey]

There still seems to be controversy about whether viruses can be called life though.

And there is a debate ongoing on ID vs evolution.

Doesn't mean ID is a valid idea.

 

[S.A.M.]

I piss on anthropomorphic views on life. They are the worst enemy of science.

You were obviously an Indian in your prior life.