Author: Bob Durrett
Date: 07:47:01 10/19/02
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Consider an analogy between an amoeba and Fritz: Most people would agree that amoebas are alive. But suppose some very tiny predator were to take a very tiny bite out of one particular amoeba? Furthur, suppose that the bite was so tiny that it only removed only one single atom from the amoeba. Chances are, that bite would not kill that amoeba. But then let another very tiny predator take another very tiny bite [another atom] out of that same amoeba. Maybe that bite, too, would not kill the amoeba. But let the process continue, one bite at a time until that poor amoeba is all eaten up. Most would agree that life would have left the amoeba after one of those bites. [Unless one believes in "amoeba ghosts."] Most would also agree that the original amoeba consisted of a finite number of atoms, arranged together in a very special way. But who would seriously assert that individual atoms are alive? I wouldn't. And yet, the amoeba, consisting of a finite number of atoms, is alive. Something, life, is added to the collection of inanimate atoms. How? I don't know. Now lets look at Fritz. Fritz may be considered to be "merely" a collection of machine instructions, with the machine instructions arranged in a very special way. A very large collection, indeed. Just like the amoeba is a very large collection of atoms. Most would agree that a single machine instruction is not alive. But what about the very large collection of machine instructions called Fritz? If a very large collection of inanimate atoms can have life, why not the same for a very large collection of inanimate machine instructions? It seems that life cannot be ruled out for Fritz! Of course, this by itself does not prove that Fritz is alive. But it does rule out the possibility that Fritz could not be alive. Life is not created in the image of Man. More later. Bob D.
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