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Paper: Culture, Computing Should Be Considered “Life Forms”

The idea of broadening the definition of life isn’t wholly new. Astronomer Fred Hoyle wrote a sci-fi novel about intelligent gaseous clouds

Some researchers are urging us to broaden our definition of life, which may have an impact on the search for life on exoplanets. In a new paper, published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution, Santa Fe Institute researchers Chris Kempes and David Krakauer argue that in order to recognize life’s full range of forms, we must develop a new theoretical frame. Santa Fe Institute, ” New theory of life’s multiple origins” at ScienceDaily Although there are many definitions of life, they all assume a strict separation between life and non-life — and that is what the researchers challenge: Culture, computation, and forests are all forms of life in this frame. As Kempes explains, “human culture lives on the material of Read More ›