Dr. Mark Humphrys

School of Computing. Dublin City University.

Online coding site: Ancient Brain

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What is Life?

Some people think that life is the thing machines will always lack.
That maybe a machine could be "intelligent" and even "conscious" but it will never be "alive".
But what is life? If a machine can make more machines, is it then "alive"? This turns out to be hard to define.
Here are some questions you are encouraged to debate.
There is no "correct" answer.


Is a 3 month old embryo alive?

Is a 2 week old embryo alive?

Is a fertilised egg alive? Were you alive when you were a fertilised egg?

If you are alive now, and once you were not, when exactly did you become alive?


If living things exist on earth now, and once they did not, when exactly did living things start to exist?


Are spiders alive?

Are amoebae alive?

Are bacteria alive?

Are viruses alive?

Are mitochondria alive?

Are crystals alive?

Are rivers alive?


Are robots alive?

Are computers alive?

Are automobiles alive?

Are steam engines alive?


Is life about reproduction? Is a sterile human alive?

Maybe it's about arising from reproduction? If we took a copy of you by copying all the atoms of your body, would the copy be alive?


ancientbrain.com      w2mind.org      humphrysfamilytree.com

On the Internet since 1987.      New 250 G VPS server.

Note: Links on this site to user-generated content like Wikipedia are highlighted in red as possibly unreliable. My view is that such links are highly useful but flawed.