Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rutgers!princeton!allegra!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!tullis
From: tullis@uiucdcs.cs.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: The Original Life Article
Message-ID: <182900001@uiucdcs>
Date: Thu, 9-Oct-86 22:12:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.182900001
Posted: Thu Oct  9 22:12:00 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 16-Oct-86 05:40:56 EDT
Lines: 29
Nf-ID: #N:uiucdcs:182900001:000:1343
Nf-From: uiucdcs.cs.uiuc.edu!tullis    Oct  9 21:12:00 1986



	Since this notesfile on many systems recently shifted from
net.origins to talk.origins; and since some sites didn't make the
switchover very quickly, I will repost my original "what is LIFE" article.


	It seems this notesfile has drifted far away from its beginnings, which
were to be discussing origins. Either it rambles into long pedantic
arguements about whether there is or is not a god or God, and what he/she
looks like and eats for breakfast; or we get long `scientific' ramblings
about punctuated or periodic or gradual evolution (assumed as Law, like
Law of Gravity, rather than theory); or totally psuedo-scientific or
quasi-mystical bullshit about the `felt affect of gravity', etc.

	So, I challenge anyone who reads this notesfile to the following
challenge. The challenge is:

		What is LIFE?

	If we want to discuss the origin of life...we should know what this
`life' stuff is. Think conceptually and abstractly, in the sense that if
(a definite hypothetical example) we go (someday) to other planets both
in this and other solar systems, how will we recognize primitive life forms?
	Some things are definitely alive (I am, and you presumably are if
you are reading this). But how do we definitely draw the line between life
and non-life? What properties does a system have to have to be A LIVING
ORGANISM?
		What is LIFE?