In article <610fld$rh6 at net.bio.net>
Mike Lamb <mikejonlamb at earthlink.net> writes:
> My feeling? Prions are not alive but viruses are alive.
>> The essence of life is the replication of coded information.
By this reasoning, then, a book which instructs or compells a person in
how to create a new book just like the first is then "alive".
Or the instruction: "take this message, copy it and paste it 500
times", is then "alive".
To me, a definition of life must include an inherent metabolism
sufficient for the construction of progeny, not just the instructions
telling or compelling another body to do so.
David N. Levy
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, AL 35294-0007
levy at uab.edu
