XPost: sci.skeptic, alt.atheism, alt.conspiracy   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian, alt.russian.z1   
   From: os333@netc.eu   
      
   JTEM,    
   >  Oleg Smirnov wrote:   
      
   >> How do we (living humans) distingwish between what is a   
   >> living thing and what is a non-life? This question seems   
   >> to be needed to be answered first before speculations on   
   >> artificial creation of life from non-life.   
   >   
   > Already been done. Long ago.   
   >   
   > Yes the web now sucks. I thought I'd do the proverbial 30 second   
   > Google search, post a URL, but we're in the post information age   
   > now.   
   >   
   > Google A.I. said there are 5 criteria for life. And a little   
   > further down stated there was seven...   
   >   
   > Here's NASA's take on it. Seeing how they allegedly are in an   
   > active search for life, THIS is what they claim to be looking   
   > for:   
   >   
   > https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/education/alp/characteristics-of-life/   
      
   There's a great lot of sources where "characteristics" of   
   life are being described / discussed, but they don't qualify   
   as criteria for distinguishment.   
      
   If there were such clear formalizable criteria then it'd be   
   fundamentally possible to design a technical device that   
   might accurately detect what is alive and what is not alive.   
      
   One may suspect - on the second or third thought - there's   
   an internal contradiction within the very idea, and it looks   
   like it takes life to know life.   
      
   >> Scientists (both falsifiers and bona fide scholars) from   
   >> time to time claim they've managed to make something that   
   >> seems to be alive, but it usually doesn't go much far.   
   >   
   > I'm not aware of anyone making a serious claim. For life.   
      
      
      
      
      
   >> It is true it wouldn't prove abiogenesis, but as well it   
   >> is not true it would prove that creationism is possible.   
   >   
   > It would be an actual example of creationism. You can't get better   
   > "Proof" than that.   
   >   
   > If scientists managed to produce life from non life under laboratory   
   > conditions, it would be intelligent beings creating life by design.   
      
   It's rather a wishful sophistry.   
      
   > Period.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)