I have a profound respect to Dawkins, but why should I believe him? Why would you restrict the 'genes' to those (physical worldly - conventional scientific) measurements that show a 'match' to the 'parents' similarly superficially mapped genes? All 'networks' go infinite with branching further and further into more and more aspects (the "genes" not exempted) - it is a likely (human?) vision of the infinite complexity we have only a small glimpse of. Your distinction: can something "be alive" without life? Then my question stands. Could you describe 'being alive' without the concept of 'life'? "Mules don't constitute life" - no, mules constitute animals - a transition between a horse and an ass. Both rife with life - except for the progeny? JM
On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 2:57 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 9/23/2013 11:49 AM, John Mikes wrote: > > Brent - REPRODUCTION???? - in our 'biology' there is only one strain that > reproduces: the prokaryotes by mitosis. In most(?) heterosex procreation > you take TWO DIFFERENT ENTITIES and by combining some products of them you > CREATE a third one, not identical to any of the "procreating" parents. > Biologist friends were surprised, but finally agreed. > > > Dawkins would point out that it's genes that get reproduced. > > > There was ONE smartAlec who changed my topic to 'reproduction of the > SPECIES' - which is fine, as long as we know much enough of the details of > that 'specie' - what we usually don't. (Cf: drug-resistence of microbes). > "For an alien all humans are identical, even many animal kinds included." > I would not deny the Robert Rosen characteristics-cryterion: his M & R > the Metabolism and Repair. I don't find it a definitive description, but > in most cases it works fine as "main" attribute. > Reproduction? no way. A mule is alive. > > > Did you miss that I was making a distinction between 'life' (as in 'Is > there life on Mars?') and 'being alive'. Sure a mule is alive. But mules > don't constitute life. > > Brent > > > JohnM > > > > On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 2:07 PM, Craig Weinberg <[email protected]>wrote: > >> >> >> On Monday, September 23, 2013 12:45:00 PM UTC-4, Brent wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> For 'life', in contrast to 'being alive', I'd add reproduction. That's >>> the real defining >>> characteristic of life. >>> >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
