http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd66/66nr20.htm
Yes, it seems more a biology article than a spirituality-themed one, but it deals closely with the source of life which is a pretty philisophical issue.Quote:
Writing in Science on July 11, researchers from the State University of New York in Stony Brook published the results of an experiment successfully creating the world's first 'synthetic' or 'manmade' virus - a polio virus 'built' from commercially available, mail-order DNA, rearranged on the basis of genetic-sequencing information downloaded from the Internet. Once assembled, the activity and lethality of the viral material, apparently identical to a natural strain of polio, was 'successfully' tested on mice.
Viruses... just chemicals? Aren't we the same way? Made up of chemical reactions and electrical impulses? This raises a few questions in my mind. For one... where is the line between life and death drawn? What defines life? What is its driving force (if it has one)?Quote:
Wimmer was quick to distance himself from suggestions his team had created life in the laboratory, telling Reuters (July 11): "No, I would not say I created life in a test tube. We created a chemical in a test tube that, when put into cells, begins to behave a little bit like something alive. Some people say viruses are chemicals and I belong to that group."
Think of the computer. This, though it seems artificial, is an organic form of intelligence, as much as any other creature. The human brain's neurons are always either firing, or not firing, never anything in between. Billions of neurons are firing at any given second, but it's all just an extremely complex calculation of 'yes' and 'no'. Just like binary. Just like a computer. So, you could argue that in a sense, your computer is alive. It's an extension of our intelligence, but it is intelligent in its own right.
It's not so much cause and effect, in the sense that we created life when we created the computer, or the virus in the laboratory. I don't think life is so much driven along by some outside entity. I just think it may be that the boundaries between life and death are... well, maybe they've been misconstrued, or maybe they don't even exist. :confused: Just some thoughts.
Hmm... anyway, hope that made sense, I'm kinda baked. :stoned:
