home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27 / NN_1992_27.iso / spool / talk / origins / 14260 < prev    next >
Encoding:
Internet Message Format  |  1992-11-16  |  2.1 KB
  1. Path: sparky!uunet!psgrain!ee.und.ac.za!hippo!ucthpx!uctvax.uct.ac.za!rybicki
  2. From: rybicki@uctvax.uct.ac.za
  3. Newsgroups: talk.origins
  4. Subject: Re: What is consciousness?
  5. Message-ID: <1992Nov16.165752.203285@uctvax.uct.ac.za>
  6. Date: 16 Nov 92 16:57:52 +0200
  7. References: <1992Nov7.110524.24852@klaava.Helsinki.FI> <4eXwTB1w165w@kalki33> <1992Nov10.005839.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu>
  8. Organization: University of Cape Town
  9. Lines: 31
  10.  
  11. In article <1992Nov10.005839.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu>, kmagnacca@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
  12. > In article <4eXwTB1w165w@kalki33>, kalki33!system@lakes.trenton.sc.us writes:
  13. >> cust_ts@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Tero Sand) writes:
  14.  
  15. [deleted]
  16.  
  17. >> 
  18. >>> I see. Are trees conscious? Is a virus conscious?
  19. >> 
  20. >> Yes, trees and viruses are living beings, are they not?
  21. > 
  22. >    Are they?  How do you define alive?  A virus has no metabolism.
  23. > How can you tell if something has consciousness?  It's not an empirical
  24. > characteristic like metabolism that can be easily distinguished.
  25.  
  26. If life is defined as the phenomenon which is associated with the replication
  27. of nucleic acids, then sure, viruses are definitely alive - got nucleic acids
  28. and they replicate.  If, on the other hand, you are a leg-counter (zoologist)
  29. or leaf-counter (botanist), you won't like that definition because it doesn't
  30. have "irritability" or "nutrition" in it.  Tough....
  31.  
  32.  _________________________________________________________________________
  33. |                                 |                                       |
  34. |  Ed Rybicki                     |    Now you've got the hang of it      |
  35. |  Dept Microbiology              | There's nothing you can't do with it  |
  36. |  University of Cape Town        |         If you're very into it        |
  37. |  PB Rondebosch 7700             |         You can't go wrong....        |
  38. |  South Africa                   |                                       |
  39. |  fax 27 21 650 4023             |              - Mad John               |
  40. |  ed@micro.uct.ac.za             | (Ogden's Nut-Gone Flake, Small Faces) |
  41. |_________________________________|_______________________________________|
  42.