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Permalink Reply by Robert Karp on June 23, 2011 at 9:54am

If they have no prior explanation and experience of this, then fear would be the most likely result. Depending on their level of intelligence I would think this would be a good time for them to create religion because they would be scared circut-less of this substance.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 23, 2011 at 10:09am

Do you think they might fear it was a potentially unstoppable exponential reaction?

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Permalink Reply by Robert Karp on June 23, 2011 at 10:18am

Absolutely. Without evidence that would suggest another outcome. I mean I think about how I react to mold growing on food. I throw it out. In the most general sense I fear it and I know all about it. This is something that they cannot just throw out. It is invading their lives in a very direct way.

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Permalink Reply by Kirsten on June 23, 2011 at 10:58am

True, but we also evolved to fear things like molds. They do tend to be rather hazardous to our health, except when they're antibiotics of course. Maybe if the mold ate the type of minerals they themselves were composed of they would have a reason for concern. But I'm thinking actual fear wouldn't come unless this thing was found to be somehow detrimental.

 

   I'm guessing they would begin experimenting to see exactly what allowed for this strange new thing to occur: a combination of certain minerals and water? They'd likely do the logical thing and start seeing what about this area made it special, from the large scope down to the atomic level. Then they'd need to experiment and see if they could recreate it in an isolated area, and grow samples to see what could stop or change it.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 23, 2011 at 11:02am

Do you think they would perceive it as 'living', lacking any form of intelligence, memory, etc?

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Permalink Reply by Kirsten on June 23, 2011 at 12:13pm

It would depend on their definition of living. 

 

Things that make them different from the surrounding world: self-replication, movement, use of resources. The mold also has all these things. They would see it as different doubtlessly, a smaller and possibly less efficient form, but recognizably "alive" in their robotic context.

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Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 23, 2011 at 12:27pm

When I think of proto-life, I wonder where the line between cyclical chemical reaction and 'life' would be drawn.  What is the most basic form of recursive chemical reaction that we could actually call life?

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Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on June 23, 2011 at 12:52pm

I believe it's Glenn Beck.

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Permalink Reply by Kirsten on June 23, 2011 at 2:12pm

Don't forget Mr. Oreiley! We don't want them to be lonely; maybe they can combine their brains and have two cells to knock together rather than one.


I think "life" by definition is the ability to replicate, though I suppose one would need to specify physically if things like computer viruses were going to be excluded. The rest is just stuff to help replicate.

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on June 23, 2011 at 2:36pm

Well, you use computer viruses as an example, but even organic viruses are not considered life by all members of the scientific community.  They sort of fall on a border region.

Permalink Reply by Heather Spoonheim on June 23, 2011 at 2:47pm

Yes, I think for something to be considered 'life', most scientists require that it not depend on something else considered 'life' for the materials it needs to replicate.  Consuming other organisms is one thing, but invading cells to borrow the replication toolbox is not allowed.

 

Still, though, when you think about it, at some point there must have been a very complex molecule that was essentially a replication toolkit that couldn't do anything other than replicate other replication toolkits.  That thing would have been the first 'life' by most definitions, although it also would have been nothing more than a very complex molecule.  It's difficult to think of it as 'alive'.

Permalink Reply by Kris Feenstra on June 23, 2011 at 3:25pm

My mother has her master's in microbiology and used to work in virology.  When it comes to the classification of viruses, I don't believe she ever had qualms about considering them living.  That said, I don't think she ever considered the debate all that important either.  My point is not about correctness, but rather about importance.  I think it was less important to have clear classifications for things at that broad level, and more important to be able to observe their properties and behaviours accurately.

 

Biology, especially evolutionary biology, is always going to be filled with grey areas.  I think it's intrinsic to the field.  If we're looking at abiogenesis, I can see how defining life is important, but for general taxonomy, I don't know how much most people really care.  If there was something to act ans an intermediary phase between non-life and life, it's probably more important to understand how it functions than to be able to accurately classify it by a pre-existing definitions.

 

I think that was my way of saying 'I don't know' to the original question.

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