Thread: Scientists out to define 'Life'

Life is a relative term. It's made up by people. It can't really be defined. A clear line certainly can't be drawn. It's good people do ask the question "what is life?". Hopefully they will also think about what kinds of life are to be respected and how.

Originally Posted by Tornado Joe

Caught this article on how scientists are getting closer to being able to create life. Interesting stuff, but does anyone find it just a bit unsettling? Not that the scientists will be creating Frankensteins or anything - but such powers in the wong hands...

or have I been watching too many science fiction movies?

Scientists Struggle to Define 'Life'

Firstly: They aren't actually trying to define life. You've just said they're trying to create life.

Secondly: You've been watching too many horror films. I'm not sure what article you saw, but scientist aren't anywhere close toi making anything like a Frankenstien monster.

Thirdly: I'd like to say that trying to do such a thing when it is physically impossible to do would be an egoistic act of mind-numbing stupidity. Last time I heard of a scientist getting such a big idea it was to try and merge a human embryo with a rabbits. I heard the creature got put down. Actually a few days after I heard of that on the news I searched far and wide for it on the Internet. There was noevidence it had ever been broadcasted, no record og that story, and no record whatsoever of the experiment, so you never know what happened to it...

This is pretty cool i must admit, i mean this means that so much more can be done around the world like it said in the article.

I must admit that when i first read it it reminded me of those movies in which a scientist created something and it became uncontrollable and breaks out. But to be honest, movies are scripted and who knows what will happen in the future? Maybe we will be overrun by terminators, now that would be scary.....

Even if we won't be able to create a monster. Something could go wrong. You see, if we make all these little critters and let them "cure" us, couldn't it be possible that they turn on us... perhaps by mutating and eating us all. The same thing with nanobots. You could program it to fix or eat "broken" cells, like cancer, but what if it eats all the cells?

Originally Posted by Mr.Humble

Firstly: They aren't actually trying to define life. You've just said they're trying to create life.

Article Title = "Scientists Struggle to Define 'Life'"
Article First Sentence = "Around the world, a handful of scientists are trying to create life from scratch and they're getting closer."

Hey man, I'm just passing the message along to spark some discussion. I didn't write nor perform any of the experiments

That's what I just said. You aren't talking about defining life, you're talking about creating it. Wholely different discussion.

I wouldn't trust nonobots or something like that either, btw.

Ah, I see. I think maybe the word "define" was not meant as "the meaning of..." but rather the other definition of "define" - which is "to mark out the boundary or limits of". I guess by being able to create life from scratch, we'd be either breaking or creating new boundaries to what the possibilities are.