Abiogenesis (Origins)

by broken_cynic , Tuesday, August 09, 2011, 02:04 (4854 days ago) @ David Turell

All well and good, but I wasn't talking about the processes or even the results. I meant that the materials and the laws that govern their interaction are the same stuff all the way down. In short, there is no élan vital to distinguish the inert from the living, the difference is all in the pattern of the dance (the arrangement and interaction of the same basic pieces.
> 
> We define life as something very different than inorganic matter. I can well ask the question, are you living? Or do you consider yourself a mobile structure? Do you have consciousness? -I do consider myself to be living and conscious. Yet I am made up of bits and pieces of both organic and inorganic matter. It comes down to patterns (emergent properties if you prefer) not some fundamental difference. There is no hard, bright line between alive and not. Even today we see discussions about whether viruses are 'alive' in the same way we are. Yet viruses may well be (must be by my guess) more complex than whatever could be said to have been the first unique step on the road to 'life.'-> Going from inorganic material to living matter is a giant step we cannot explain. Frankly I don't know what you consider e'lan vital.-We're not doing too bad for being billions of years removed from the event with no direct evidence and only having just recently figured out the whole evidence based rationalism thing! -So how do you draw a line between living and not? What is your definition for life?