It was said by William A Taylor that
>>e904952p at hjc wrote:
>>> Hi! I am a high school student fascinated by the phenomena of life. I've
>> just discovered the wonder of Usenet so I've been posted a lot recently.
>> One thing I want to ask is that what exactly happens when life leaves a
>> living organism. Physically I don't see anything much has happened. We
>> still got roughly, if not exactly, the same amount of matter there, but
>> still something must have happened, since it's now dead!
>> So what is it?
>> If we consider life as an open system could we say that it's gone though
>> bifurcation and has 'jumped' to another state which is commonly called
>> 'death'?
>> Life is certainly a strange phenomena. If we construct a system and throw
>> in some nutrients and a living organism, some time later we find two
>> organisms in the system. But if we throw in a DEAD organism, nothing will
>> happen no matter how long we wait.
>> Isn't it kind of odd?
>>I see this as a philosophical question, which will not find many
>satisfying responses in this newsgroup as this is mostly a scientific
>forum. Scientific views of life can be called mechanistic which says that
>living things are merely a more complex arrangement of matter than
>non-living things. A vitalist view holds that living things are of a
>different quality than non-living things. I think that your answer lies
>in the latter which, however, is not the scientific view.
"This" may be a scientific forum to you, but because of the uninhibited
way the original poster has spammed the newsgroups, he has also hit a
completely unscientific wibble group. We shall see what eventuates.
Myself, I think it depends how many empties you have lined up when you
reply. Sober, I am scientific. A few beers, and I begin to marvel at
Life. A few more, and it can't *just* be the chemicals, can it? Just
before unconsciousness, vitalism appears to be the prefiect, and
obviousm, answer to it all.
Alec
