Definition of Life: Navigation through Uncertainties
@article{Trifonov2012DefinitionOL,
title={Definition of Life: Navigation through Uncertainties},
author={Edward N. Trifonov},
journal={Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics},
year={2012},
volume={29},
pages={647 - 650}
}I am pleased to receive such multifaceted response (1-19) to my paper (20). It helped me to better realize what exactly I have done. Perhaps, the main thing is original motivation: how from 123 uncertain definitions of the uncertain phenomenon described in uncertain terms to derive a consensus, without engaging in the debates, which so far did not bring the consensus. As P. L. Luisi put it: “the concept of life is too vague and general, and loaded with a number of historical, traditional…
35 Citations
The Life of Things
- Art
- 2015
Citing things from Native American, Native Hawaiian, Christian Orthodox, and Roman Catholic communities, this chapter asks what it might be for things to have life. Although they exclude human-made…
Life as Adaptive Capacity: Bringing New Life to an Old Debate
- Biology
- 2018
An account of life as adaptive capacity is developed that sidesteps debates about the relative importance of specific mechanisms and the precise location of boundaries to bring the three classical accounts together under a shared conceptual framework.
Is defining life pointless? Operational definitions at the frontiers of biology
- PhilosophySynthese
- 2017
It is argued that critically rethinking the nature and uses of definitions can provide new insights into the epistemic roles of definitions of life for different research practices, and the pragmatic utility of what are called operational definitions that serve as theoretical and epistemic tools in scientific practice.
Artificial Intelligence
- PhilosophyCambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
- 2016
This article investigates why the authors' possible relations to AI persons could be more complicated than they first might appear, given that they might possess a radically different nature to us, to the point that civilized or peaceful coexistence in a determinate geographical space could be impossible to achieve.
Living media : Transgressing bios , transgressing techne and paving the way to further transgressions
- Art
It was only a while ago that a clear opposition could be traced between bios and techne. However, together with the emergence of new branches of science, such as biotechnology, stemming from…
How Will the Emerging Plurality of Lives Change How We Conceive of and Relate to Life?
- EducationChallenges
- 2019
The project “A Plurality of Lives” was funded and hosted by the Pufendorf Institute for Advanced Studies at Lund University, Sweden. The aim of the project was to better understand how a second…
Formal Similarities between Cybernetic Definition of Life and Cybernetic Model of Self-Consciousness: Universal Definition/Model of Individual
- Computer Science
- 2013
It is argued that the emergence of the biologicallevel of reality from the physical level and of the psychical level from the biological level is closely analogous.
Cause/effect Correlations Through the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem and Kneser Graphs
- Biology
- 2018
A novel BUT variant is introduced, termed operational-BUT, that evaluates causal relationships and is correlated with graph theory and in particular with the so-called Kneser graphs, which means that the combinatory features of observables, such as the bodily responses to drug intake, can be described in terms of dynamical mappings and paths taking place on well-established abstract structures.
Projective Mechanisms Subtending Real World Phenomena Wipe Away Cause Effect Relationships
- Physics
- 2019
Causal relationships lie at the very core of our scientific description of biophysical phenomena. Nevertheless, observable facts such as chaotic dynamics, symmetry breaks, long-range collisionless…
Self-Replication and Non-enzymatic Catalytic Networks subject to Open Flow
- Chemistry
- 2018
The origin of life on earth has inspired scientists, philosophers, and common folk for quite a long time. The answer to this question either will be no definitive answer or has multiple factors, i.e,…
References
SHOWING 1-5 OF 5 REFERENCES
Vocabulary of Definitions of Life Suggests a Definition
- SociologyJournal of biomolecular structure & dynamics
- 2011
Analysis of the vocabulary of 123 tabulated definitions of life reveals nine groups of defining terms of which the groups (self-)reproduction and evolution appear as the minimal set for a concise and inclusive definition: Life is self-reproduction with variations.
A System of Two Polymerases – A Model for the Origin of Life
- BiologyOrigins of life and evolution of the biosphere
- 2004
A new definition of life is proposed as a system of nucleic acid and protein polymerases with a constantsupply of monomers, energy and protection, providing a possible explanation for the origin of the interaction between nucleicacids and protein.
The emergence of life : from chemical origins to synthetic biology
- Biology
- 2006
The conceptual framework of the research on the origin of life on Earth includes approaches to the definitions of life, self-organization, autopoiesis, and the logic of cellular life.
Template-directed synthesis of a genetic polymer in a model protocell
- BiologyNature
- 2008
It is shown that prebiotically plausible membranes allow the passage of charged molecules such as nucleotides, so that activated nucleotide added to the outside of a model protocell spontaneously cross the membrane and take part in efficient template copying in the protocell interior.