Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
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Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#2The trick lies in the fact that life forms have no obvious boundary. The fact that two creatures are two creatures, and not just a single creature is something that is just endowed to them by us humans. If one of the creatures dies, does it really die, or does the combination of the two creatures just loses half of its brain cells? That second view is just as valid. Hence, in that second view, nothing really ever dies; we (i.e., the universe) just lose brain cells. And, of course, we gain them as well.
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#3The trick lies in the fact that life forms have no obvious boundary. The fact that two creatures are two creatures, and not just a single creature is something that is just endowed to them by us humans. If one of the creatures dies, does it really die, or does the combination of the two creatures just loses half of its brain cells? That second view is just as valid. Hence, in that second view, nothing really ever die…
Conservation of energy: you can only become something else. Death is the opposite of birth, not of life.
And indeed, we are the cosmos contemplating its own existence.
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#4The trick lies in the fact that life forms have no obvious boundary. The fact that two creatures are two creatures, and not just a single creature is something that is just endowed to them by us humans. If one of the creatures dies, does it really die, or does the combination of the two creatures just loses half of its brain cells? That second view is just as valid. Hence, in that second view, nothing really ever die…
What you're saying is not unique to lifeforms. It can apply to inanimate objects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#5The trick lies in the fact that life forms have no obvious boundary. The fact that two creatures are two creatures, and not just a single creature is something that is just endowed to them by us humans. If one of the creatures dies, does it really die, or does the combination of the two creatures just loses half of its brain cells? That second view is just as valid. Hence, in that second view, nothing really ever die…
This way we could say the entire universe is just a big chemical reaction. It wouldn't even be an incorrect view. It just wouldn't be useful for anything.
This is the real value of models and concepts we use - not their grand philosophical sense, but how useful they are. We set up boundaries between creatures, define concepts like life and death because they allow us to understand and predict the world better. It's usually more useful to treat two creatures as two creatures instead of one, but sometimes it's the reverse - for instance, it's often more useful to treat an entire colony of ants as a single being, individual ants becoming just cells / organelles.
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#6Life is special because it's complex. Modern human society on Earth is the most complex thing in the history of the known universe. Complex things, though, tend to be very fragile.
(paraphrased from David Christian's "Big History" Great Courses lecture)
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#7The trick lies in the fact that life forms have no obvious boundary. The fact that two creatures are two creatures, and not just a single creature is something that is just endowed to them by us humans. If one of the creatures dies, does it really die, or does the combination of the two creatures just loses half of its brain cells? That second view is just as valid. Hence, in that second view, nothing really ever die…
This way we could say the entire universe is just a big chemical reaction. It wouldn't even be an incorrect view. It just wouldn't be useful for anything. This is the real value of models and concepts we use - not their grand philosophical sense, but how useful they are. We set up boundaries between creatures, define concepts like life and death because they allow us to understand and predict the world better. It's u…
"It just wouldn't be useful for anything."
It is useful for something. It's just not useful for problems that require a high degree of specificity. And not all problems do; in fact, some are hindered by it. (For instance, focussing on individual atoms won't really help you do politics.)
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#8Of course not.
Shuffle a deck of cards. If you did it properly, the new arrangement is unique. No deck of cards has ever been arranged like that before, and none will ever again, unless you deliberately preserve it.
I just drew a scribble on a post-it note. Nobody else has a scribble quite like it, or ever will again, after I throw it away.
Every time a snowflake melts, something beautiful and unique is lost forever.
None of these things are special, unless you're using a really weird meaning of "special".
You can say that they might be unique, but they're sufficiently similar to other things that they might as well not be - but what distance metric are you using? You're using one shaped by your own values, which say that one human is special even in the presence of another seven billion humans, but that one snowflake is unimportant in the presence of another seven billion.
It might be that rareness is a prerequisite of specialness. It's not the only factor.
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#9Is life special?
Re: Is Life Special Just Because It’s Rare?
#10Life is special because it's complex. Modern human society on Earth is the most complex thing in the history of the known universe. Complex things, though, tend to be very fragile. (paraphrased from David Christian's "Big History" Great Courses lecture)
I would say there are much more complex phenomena than a few bajillion atoms and electricity bouncing flailing about on the surface of a mostly-water planet.