'Life' has definitely become a tricky word to define these days. A rock is
inert, passive, possesses no active systems, is incapable of reproduction, is
inorganic, and thus my scientist's brain rules it out. Questioning what is
sentient has become a whole new conundrum, as both many species of animals
(long thought insentient by many schools of thought), and some complex AI
systems are capable of displaying traits of self awareness and subjective
perception. Combined with the long running argument of 'What is
consciousness?', it tends to make it difficult for a rationalist to come to an
easy answer.
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--- Begin Message ---
"... On May 12, 7:30 am, Chris Jenkins <[email protected]>
wrote: ..."
> I believe the question could be rephrased as, 'Why do you think a rock has
> life?'
Life as we know it to be is not infused in a rock. I think the only
way a rock -- or any other such matter -- could be considered to have
anything even remotely considered to be life would be the forces that
imbue that rock at the atomic or sub-atomic level. To my thinking,
life implies sentience which is the ability to feel or perceive
subjectively. Of course it could also be argued whether or not a
single celled creature -- which we do define as possessing life -- can
actually feel or perceive subjectively. However, I seriously doubt
whether a rock or any other such matter, could be considered to have
life as such. I've never known a rock that could feel anything.
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