"W!m" <W!M@dotkom> wrote in message 
news:6690a$4b708f22$54697dc7$22961@cache80.multikabel.net...

Skybuck Flying wrote:

Suppose we humans start living in computers, and then we sent
computers into space containing us...

Maybe back in time... then we encounter those computers.

Without actually having seen a computer we would think it was a dead
piece of metal.

While in reality there was "life" inside the computer.

Therefore when we explore the universe we should be carefull before
we say that something is dead...

It might appear to be dead... but there could be a whole information
system going on inside of it ! ;)

(Life is probably mostly about "loops/circles" be it physically or in
an information system ;))

What do you smoke?

that is a mystery...

what does one smoke to keep posting piles upon piles of random crap to 
random groups...


either way, my opinion on the topic is that if a human "did" manage to 
migrate entirely into a computer, they would no longer be "living" anymore 
(even if all mental/... aspects were simulated, or even if a world and a 
society could be faithfully simulated...).

in "reality", they would be no more alive than the words in a fictional book 
represent actual events...


so, under this definition, to be "alive" in an external sense, would imply 
existing in a form which could also exhibit the properties of life (maybe or 
maybe not necessarily conventional organic life though).

consider as a hypothetical example the Transformers universe, where (for the 
most part / in most cases) are inorganic. yet, under usual definitions, 
could be loosely classified as life (can absorb stuff, can replicate, ...).


a computer, by itself, would not be "life" though, no matter which data it 
contains (although, one could argue the data could be "alive" from purely 
within the world of the computer, but externally it would not be so).

similarly, current machinery can't manifest "life" either.

side note: for what one could note from the various transformers variants, 
they are somewhat unlike conventional machinery in a number of ways... (as 
often as liquid-metal stuff shows up in the various variants, they are in 
general a little more like the T1000 from Terminator 2, although more often 
manifesting as solid moving parts than as a fluid...).


OTOH, a plain computer would then just sit around until it stops working...

it would make about as much sense as expecting the long-standing existence 
of a race where no means of reproduction exists. soon enough, they will all 
be dead, and thus their "life" is debatable...


now, whether or not intelligent life could resemble plants is another issue 
(along with whether any plant-like creature with intelligence could come 
into being, apart from maybe a previously mobile race becomming entirely 
sedentary...).

or such...