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What is Life?
Life has a vast, ever changing spectrum, from primitive bacteria to plant life and the extrodinary array of mammals, including ourselves. In our search for life, on our own planet and beyond it, we must certainly be open to the idea that life may exist in forms that we have yet no experience, or concept of.
Where, in our chemical and physical evolution on this planet, do we first draw the line between chemically complex non-life, and the first primitive forms of life? Might Artificial Intelligence, once sufficiently complex, constitute a new form of life? Might our earth itself, and others like it, be considered a lifeform itself, as is suggested in the Gaia hypothesis? Will other alien beings be so vast, and so far beyond understanding that we might consider them Gods, and not simply another form of life?
- Team 1 will argue that life has no barriers, that any self-organising structure,
how ever large or small, has the potential to develop into a form of "life"
and this open viewpoint is needed in our search for life elsewhere. In fact,
it might be staring at us, but we have been too narrow in our concept of what
constitutes a living entity.
- Team 2 will firmly argue that there are unique properties of organic life
here on earth that limit what can be considered a living being, or structure.
The special qualities shared by bacteria, humans and all other living things
cannot be produced in a computer, or by a rocky planet such as Earth. The
Gaia myth is a fantasy for hippies.
Resources:
Helpfull links and references- Start Here!
References
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"Biogenesis, Theories of Life's Origin", Noam Lahav, 1999, Oxford University PRess
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"Earth - Evolution of a Habitable World", Johathan I. Lunine, 1999, Cambridge University Press.
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"The Selfish Gene", R. Dawkins, 1976, Oxford Univ. Press.
An influential discussion of how genes, not us, are in control.
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"What is Life", L. Margulis and D. Sagan, Simon and Schuster.
Nicely illustrated discussion of the importance of pre-cambrian life.
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"Five Kingdoms", L. Margulis and K.V. Schwartz, 1982, W.H. Freeman.
Well-illustrated classification of living organism.
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"The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the first complex life",
M.A.S. McMenamin, 1998, Columbia Univ. Press.
Just before the cambrian explosion this is what life looked like.
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"Darwin's Dangerous Idea" D.C. Dennett, 1995, Penguin.
The best discussion of current debates in Darwinism.
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"Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life",
S. Shostak, 1998, Beverly Hills Books.
Up to date introduction to the subject.
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"The Search for Life in the Universe",
D. Goldsmith and T. Owen, 1992, Addison Wesley, 2nd edition.
A good general introduction to the information needed to talk about the
problem.
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"Life on Other Worlds",
S.J. Dick, 1998, Cambridge Univ. Press.
History and Sociology of the ET debates from the western European and
American point of view.
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"Extraterrestrials: science and alien intelligence"
edt. by E. Regis Jr., 1985, Cambridge Univ. Press.
An excellent collection of articles with spectrum of good but opposing ideas.
Links
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