Tuesday, January 26, 2010

What is life?

Meaning of life is tough to know. If you look at it from a purely biological perspective, humans or living organisms as we know them have evolved over billion of years since the universe came into being. Is it just the culmination of the Darwin's theory of natural selection? Is it just a coincidence that life came up on earth? Is it no different from the non-living things like rocks & mountains? Or does life has a meaning far greater then the earthly existence? How are living things different then nonliving?

Well, you may come up with answers like we are made of organic matter.. We grow.. we die.. But, how do you infer that life and death is what it is as we know it.. Life may have a completely different meaning for things we may consider as nonliving. For example, virus (not the electronic virus.. think biology) is a weird kind of entity (we are not sure they are living or nonliving). Strictly speaking, they are living when they are inside your body and the moment they leave your body they become nonliving. So, it is difficult to predict how life will be defined may be 1000 years from now. It could turn out that life is not unique to Earth and it may be more common. It may also be that the universe we live in is not unique & there could be millions like these all around. Knowing where we stand is difficult.. it is like staying in a deep well, unable to find what lies beyond..

No definite answer to the puzzle called life!

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