Quote:
Originally Posted by greywolf90  if we consider the cell to be the smallest unit of life, then the phone would not be considered to have the same "life" as us because it has no cells. the phone is nothing more than a combination of inorganic molecules. true that a cell is likewise, but unlike a phone, the cell has the ability to respond to it's environment. i don't think we can compare anything man-made to a cell. |
So, life must be made of carbon molecules?
And how is it that a cell phone does not respond to its environment? What do you think the "bars" are that describe signal strength? What do you think your phone is doing when you press numbers/letters on it? What do you think your phone is doing when you speak into it? A cell phone clearly responds to its environment in an IDENTICAL manner to a cell. Even to the point of most sensation occurring at the boundary (i.e. antennea or keypad or microphone) where there are highly specialized sensory inputs (i.e. cell membrane with receptor proteins).
Apply histamine (or some other molecule) to a cell or raise the temperature and you can create a dramatic conformational change or horomone release. Press a certain combination of keys or expose a cell phone to a certain pattern of electromagnetic waves (i.e. an incoming our outgoing phone call) and the cell phone can vibrate violently or cause all manner of noise/light production.
I'm not creating a bad analogy here. I'm both an electrical engineer and a biologist and have studied and implement solutions to research in both fields.
This is the problem that people have. It's a problem with their concept of what life is. It's a problem of understanding what signal transduction and information processing is.