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The relationship between biology and geology; A speculative interpretation
Topic Started: Aug 23 2017, 03:04 AM (645 Views)
Greta
Zygote
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Yiqi15
 
Back on topic, what about proteins? Can they be considered life?
Prions (such as Mad Cow Disease) are classed similarly to viruses - in the grey area (personally I'd add stars and planets to the grey area but that's a digression). If the building blocks of life such as DNA or proteins are not utilised by life forms, then they themselves can become competitors or obstacles for life.

kusanagi
 
Can something such as rust ever be considered life?

For hardcore spec bio, hypothesise DNA-free life like Peter Watts did with his plastic brittlestar aliens. Evolve it naturally from something inorganic, resembling rust.
A similar question might also be asked about computer viruses.

Fundamentally what we seem to have is a natural dynamic, ie. agents that spread out, converting other entities into itself/themselves. This dynamic seems to apply all the way from geological breakdown to viruses and prions to moulds, ant colonies and human colonies etc etc. If humans can survive and progress for another few thousand years, perhaps the principle may apply to the Earth itself as its products exert ever more influence on the planet's local environment?

Storms also have some lifelike qualities. You and others may already be familiar with an excellent lecture by Eric Smith called "Inevitable Life?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElMqwgkXguw. If not, you will surely love it :)

Holben
 
Lots of good biologists like to see it the same way, at the most extreme Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis, and the Medea hypothesis.
I like to think of the Earth as metamorphsing. It's been through a long "grub period" where the focus was mainly on consumption and growth. Now, towards the end of its life (the Sun), the Earth is in practice moving into a reproductive phase via human space programs. Failing catastrophe, the Earth will be sending ever more packets of its material, along with instructions on how to put it together (printable digitally stored DNA sequences and AI), to other worlds to propagate. It is likely that, if bioforming a planet, AI would need the appropriate viruses.

Further, if there is independent evolution of AI/Cyborgs themselves, as many experts see as likely, then there's a question of how they would deal with computer viruses.

Holben
 
There are some viruses, like the Adeno-associated virus, which are not known to have any cost at all to their host. You'd think that simply by using cellular resources there would be some cost but no pathology has been found.
That is odd about the AAV because if its products are largely non reactive with the host, then what's the point? Maybe they are like musical instrument collectors who just need a place to store their stuff but don't play them? :)

Thanks for the informative table. In short, it looks like that viruses can at least help other entities by facilitating reproduction, protecting against pathogens and playing a role in the development of some body parts.
Edited by Greta, Aug 24 2017, 12:18 AM.
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kusanagi
Adolescent
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It should be no surprise there is no real distinction between life and non-life, merely clade Biota to which alien cellular life could not belong (except from a panspermic origin). Virii at the threshold of life might reside within biota, in which case arguably nonliving things can be within Biota.
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