Agent,
For example how do you define life? It might feel intuitively obvious but it is a difficult question.
And what do you mean by power? You might mean some super-force beyond our imagination, or you might mean that we simply do not have that skill yet.
It has only been some 50 years since DNA was discovered, and DNA has evolved in a somewhat chaotic nature for quite a few million years. I don’t think we should expect to unravel all of the implications of DNA just yet. The human–genome project was a massive step forward but it is only a step. And it doesn’t look as though it will be impossible for us to create a living cell, but it will take us a while longer. I see the issue more like having to map a giant maze before we can build our own. It isn’t that we can’t do it but more that we haven’t done it yet and that it will take some time.
But the comparison with machines is valid. But then what is meant by the term “machine”? Here we consider a machine as something mechanical and man-made. Are machines alive? We don’t normally think so although a computer virus has been compared to the characteristics of a bio-virus and it is difficult to say that a computer virus is not a new form of life.
But living things are autonomous and self-directed, even the simplest forms of bio-life seek to survive. There are no machines quite like that yet, because we haven’t built any yet. Will we? Yes, for certain. Until recently the most powerful computer could only be compared, in brainpower, to that of an insect. Within the next 15 years with the geometric rate of increase in computing power we should exceed human brainpower. And what then of self-directed autonomous machines? They’ll be here within that time if we so wish.
And that brings me back to the original question – what is life?
So when you say “living life” you really mean biological life, because, within a few years there will be non-biological life.
But more importantly is the recognition that your brain patterns are what makes you, you. If we take two brains from two people, they may well appear chemically identical, even in terms of weight, but the information patterns in each will be very different. Your dog would have had unique patterns that made it special to you and different to any other dog. If those patterns could have been saved somehow, then perhaps at some future time we could have rebuilt your dog and replaced those patterns that made him, him (sorry for the male assumption). But now consider a self-directed non-biological machine of the near future; the software and memory would again represent information patterns most likely similar to a biological brain. If the brain patterns really represent what we are then the question of life is not what we are made from, soft material or hard material, but what are the characteristics of our brain/software patterns.
Hope you followed some of that.
Cris
It is an interesting statement and raises many issues.… humans do not have the power to recreate a living life.
For example how do you define life? It might feel intuitively obvious but it is a difficult question.
And what do you mean by power? You might mean some super-force beyond our imagination, or you might mean that we simply do not have that skill yet.
It has only been some 50 years since DNA was discovered, and DNA has evolved in a somewhat chaotic nature for quite a few million years. I don’t think we should expect to unravel all of the implications of DNA just yet. The human–genome project was a massive step forward but it is only a step. And it doesn’t look as though it will be impossible for us to create a living cell, but it will take us a while longer. I see the issue more like having to map a giant maze before we can build our own. It isn’t that we can’t do it but more that we haven’t done it yet and that it will take some time.
But the comparison with machines is valid. But then what is meant by the term “machine”? Here we consider a machine as something mechanical and man-made. Are machines alive? We don’t normally think so although a computer virus has been compared to the characteristics of a bio-virus and it is difficult to say that a computer virus is not a new form of life.
But living things are autonomous and self-directed, even the simplest forms of bio-life seek to survive. There are no machines quite like that yet, because we haven’t built any yet. Will we? Yes, for certain. Until recently the most powerful computer could only be compared, in brainpower, to that of an insect. Within the next 15 years with the geometric rate of increase in computing power we should exceed human brainpower. And what then of self-directed autonomous machines? They’ll be here within that time if we so wish.
And that brings me back to the original question – what is life?
So when you say “living life” you really mean biological life, because, within a few years there will be non-biological life.
What is his energy? What happens when you turn off an electrical power generator? The energy stops flowing. What is meant by biological energy? The most important is the electrical energy that represents the flow between the neurons in the brain. Once that stops then the brain patterns dissipate and decay, the patterns that controlled the self-directed lifeform will simply fade away. Literally any residual energy dissipates as heat into the surrounding atmosphere, just like any energy transfer.I am saying where did his energy go?
But more importantly is the recognition that your brain patterns are what makes you, you. If we take two brains from two people, they may well appear chemically identical, even in terms of weight, but the information patterns in each will be very different. Your dog would have had unique patterns that made it special to you and different to any other dog. If those patterns could have been saved somehow, then perhaps at some future time we could have rebuilt your dog and replaced those patterns that made him, him (sorry for the male assumption). But now consider a self-directed non-biological machine of the near future; the software and memory would again represent information patterns most likely similar to a biological brain. If the brain patterns really represent what we are then the question of life is not what we are made from, soft material or hard material, but what are the characteristics of our brain/software patterns.
Hope you followed some of that.
Cris