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Interstellar Dust Could Be "Alive"
reezle writes "An international team has discovered that, under the right conditions, particles of inorganic dust can become organized into helical structures. These structures can interact with one another in ways that are usually associated with organic compounds and with life. Not only do these helical strands interact in a counterintuitive way in which like can attract like, but they also undergo changes that are normally associated with biological molecules, such as DNA and proteins, say the researchers. For example, they can divide to form two copies of the original structure. These new structures can also interact to induce changes in their neighbors. And they can even evolve into yet more structures as less stable ones break down, leaving behind only the fittest structures in the plasma. 'These complex, self-organized plasma structures exhibit all the necessary properties to qualify them as candidates for inorganic living matter,' said the lead researcher. 'They are autonomous, they reproduce and they evolve.'" The research, published in the New Journal of Physics, was carried out using a computer model of molecular dynamics.
Organic doesn't mean biological! Organic chemistry, which is the bread and butter of modern chemistry, really has very little to do with life. It's the science of synthesizing new molecules which use carbon as its framework (as well as oxygen, nitrogen and other elements.) So things that are alive are always organic, but things that are organic are not always alive!
In reality, yes, of course. Legally and socially are other matters entirely.
Additional implied consequences include that given the ability to simulate a human brain in real time, the usual incremental hardware improvements will allow simulation in better than real time, leading naturally and directly to more-than-human performance. Likewise, lesser hardware could perform fully human reasoning in less than real time, which could put slow, but still intelligent, human reasoning and other attributes into play. This is entirely aside from the issue of improving the human model, which is also a very likely path of advancement given the initial achievement.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
So, taking your argument one step further and combining with the parent post, you think it's likely that 12-foot flightless birds exist somewhere else in the universe?
...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
I believe it was Roger Schank who was once asked "Do you think computers will ever be as intelligent as humans?" and replied "Yes. Briefly."
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.