I think the debate is not so much over what qualifies as "alive" as what qualifies as "death". Most people couldn't care less about whether viruses are "really" alive, but the death of 150,000 people a day affects virtually everyone.
- Tom --- Jey Kottalam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 7/4/07, Tom McCabe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > --- Randall Randall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote: > > > > > > > > On Jul 4, 2007, at 1:14 AM, Tom McCabe wrote: > > > > > > > That definition isn't accurate, because it > doesn't > > > > match what we intuitively see as 'death'. > 'Death' > > > is > > > > actually fairly easy to define, compared to > "good" > > > or > > > > even "truth"; I would define it as the > permanent > > > > destruction of a large portion of the > information > > > that > > > > makes up a sentient being's mind. > > > > > > I would say that 'life' is a process, and that > > > the cessation of the process is death. > > > > So, we die whenever we're put under anesthesia? > That > > seems to contradict the reports of everyone who's > had > > surgery. > > > > There's a hidden assumption here that there is a > sharp distinction > between living and non-living. How do we know that > there's such a > distinction? Are viruses alive? The laws of physics > governing these > living and non-living things don't make any such > distinction, and > while it's useful for us to classify things into > different buckets for > the sake of our understanding, there's no guarantee > that a boundary > present in our model of the world (e.g. living vs > non-living) actually > exists in reality. > > </a reminder of the obvious> > > -Jey Kottalam > > ----- > This list is sponsored by AGIRI: > http://www.agiri.org/email > To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: > http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=4007604&id_secret=11401653-275bb7
