Thread: Why does life exist?

A new theory on the creation of life. (Doesn't involve fictional deities, bearded hippies or dinosaurs, so if that's your thing, move on).

Why does life exist?

Popular hypotheses credit a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning and a colossal stroke of luck. But if a provocative new theory is correct, luck may have little to do with it. Instead, according to the physicist proposing the idea, the origin and subsequent evolution of life follow from the fundamental laws of nature and “should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill.”

From the standpoint of physics, there is one essential difference between living things and inanimate clumps of carbon atoms: The former tend to be much better at capturing energy from their environment and dissipating that energy as heat. Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life.

England’s theory is meant to underlie, rather than replace, Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection, which provides a powerful description of life at the level of genes and populations. “I am certainly not saying that Darwinian ideas are wrong,” he explained. “On the contrary, I am just saying that from the perspective of the physics, you might call Darwinian evolution a special case of a more general phenomenon.”

His idea, detailed in a recent paper and further elaborated in a talk he is delivering at universities around the world, has sparked controversy among his colleagues, who see it as either tenuous or a potential breakthrough, or both.

England has taken “a very brave and very important step,” said Alexander Grosberg, a professor of physics at New York University who has followed England’s work since its early stages. The “big hope” is that he has identified the underlying physical principle driving the origin and evolution of life, Grosberg said.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20140...heory-of-life/

Interesting, possibly plausible, but the religious fanatics will state that it does not address the prime mover argument.

Life? That's easy. But awareness and attempting comprehension is hard. Think of the vastness of the universe and how little awareness there is that it even exists.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Interesting, possibly plausible, but the religious fanatics will state that it does not address the prime mover argument.

Interesting that there are more twisted alternatives regarding existential orthodoxy. Infinitive...

What might be more challenging would be to inquire upon the particular imagined comparative state of life and why it perpetuate itself as it does - as each life form and existing condition will have it's own complex sentiment defining a moment of superlative perpetuation.

What/who makes up the state of importance of being?

Self taught. Start at the bottom and work your way up. The earth is its own entity and humanity is but one species. Some can improvise, adapt and overcome. Others cannot.
Religion is just a fake security blanket.
Science has the answers.

Originally Posted by chassamui

Self taught. Start at the bottom and work your way up. The earth is its own entity and humanity is but one species. Some can improvise, adapt and overcome. Others cannot.
Religion is just a fake security blanket.
Science has the answers.

Nature might have more improved answers.

Why does life exist?

after reading this forum for half an hour that is a question i often ask.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula

Blimey, is there no end to the dehumanizing efforts from MIT???

"I think, therefore I am"...

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated - where disconnections are celebrated and championed.

Why don't we have a separate sub-forum for discussing the more esoteric questions of philosophy, spirituality, life the universe and everything elevated above the humdrum tedium of politics in Speakers Corner

?

We used to have one but it got bazooka'd

[QUOTE=harrybarracuda;3238014]

Why does life exist?

..42..

Originally Posted by Looper

Why don't we have a separate sub-forum for discussing the more esoteric questions of philosophy, spirituality, life the universe and everything elevated above the humdrum tedium of politics in Speakers Corner

?

We used to have one but it got bazooka'd

Yeah....the philosophical/rhetoric/abstract sub-forum what quite lively and interesting in it's day.
Why they binned it - I don't know.