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From: jru@etn-rad.UUCP (John Unekis)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Non-carbon based life
Message-ID: <241@etn-rad.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Aug-87 15:10:20 EDT
Article-I.D.: etn-rad.241
Posted: Thu Aug  6 15:10:20 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Aug-87 17:52:37 EDT
References: <265@askja.UUCP> <1767@sfsup.UUCP>
Reply-To: jru@etn-rad.UUCP (0000-John Unekis)
Distribution: world
Organization: Eaton Inc. IMSD, Westlake Village, CA
Lines: 32

In article <1767@sfsup.UUCP> glg@/guest4/glgUUCP (xmpj20000-G.Gleason) writes:
>In article <265@askja.UUCP> frisk@askja.UUCP (Fridrik Skulason) writes:
>
>>     Is non-carbon based life possible?
> ....(Carbon based life)...
>did not start here, but that inter-stelar microbes of viruses seeded
>life on our planet.

     There is a polpular misconception about viruses, namely that they are
     the simplest and probably first form of life. Viruses are nothing
     but genetic material wrapped in protien. They cannot assimilate
     nutrients, and they cannot reproduce alone. A virus replicates itself
     by injecting its DNA sequence into a host cell and tricking the host
     cell to copy it. When enough copies accumulate, the cell ruptures, 
     spewing out new clones to find other victim cells. To seed a planet
     with a virus would be like seeding it with nothing but sperm - a
     completely wasted effort. One school of thought says that all viruses
     originated as accidentally fatal genetic sequences which escaped from
     their mother cells.
>
>Food for thought:  If somehow artifitial intellegence developes into a
>reality rather than a limited game we play with computers, and a group
...
>they came accross carbon-based life again, I don't think they would
>ever believe they evolved from that, much less that such creatures
>actually designed and assembled their ancestors.

     This sort of speculation makes great science fiction (read -
     "Code of the Lifemaker"). For my part, someone would have to
     convince me that intelligent life exists on Earth now first.

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