/sci/ - Science & Math » Thread #7619541

[43 / 5 / ?]

57KiB, 793x299, i object.jpg

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 15:58:00 No.7619541 View Reply Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7619595 >>7619687 >>7619713 >>7619720 >>7619796 >>7619986 >>7619989 >>7620116 >>7620533 >>7620826

if viruses aren't living things, then what are they?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:03:34 No.7619556 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7619683 >>7620545

Viruses

Cheese

Cheese Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:05:26 No.7619564 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7621988

Steven Haking wanted them to be classified to be living things cause they behave like a normal virus
but they are a just pieces of code that infects your shit.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:14:06 No.7619589 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Are consumer goods a virus?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:15:57 No.7619591 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Contrary positions that can grow.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:17:01 No.7619595 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541
pseudo-living

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:25:53 No.7619622 Report Delete

Quoted By:

zombie organelles

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:29:50 No.7619640 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7619759 >>7619782

obligate intracellular parasites. They don't meet all the criteria commonly used to define life but at the end of the day it's just semantics. They are a genetic code protected by a protein coat.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:32:31 No.7619651 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7619782

Identity itself is a psychological notion (the laws of physics don't differentiate between "things" outside of what you see in the standard model), so it really is whatever you want to define it as. Of course we have to agree on definitions so that we can hold meaningful conversations, but whether viruses (or even prions) are alive really just depends on what is most useful in whatever particular branch of science you're working in. Looking for "life" on another planet? Sure, let's toss viruses into the mix. Studying the similarity of internal organs across species? No, you're probably fine just considering viruses "really complicated molecules". If you're asking in the most abstract, philosophical sense, then why should we care? What material difference does it make on how we make decisions?

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:44:08 No.7619683 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619556
>viruses

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:44:52 No.7619685 Report Delete

Quoted By:

When you get that small the idea of "life" and "non-life" starts to break down.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:44:55 No.7619687 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7619993

>>7619541
Humans

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 16:51:21 No.7619705 Report Delete

Quoted By:

niceme.me
is this link life

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:01:22 No.7619713 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541
"Life" by the definition most biologists use is a binary quality, in that you must be exactly one or the other.

Something can be either life or not life.

The question "What are they?" is easy to answer: "not life"

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:04:07 No.7619720 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541
linkin park albums

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:24:28 No.7619759 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619640
>it's just semantics
THIS

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:29:07 No.7619770 Report Delete

Quoted By:

Very small dead people

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:35:51 No.7619782 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7619811

A lot of biologists are actually starting to consider viruses a type of life, there was an article even a few weeks ago arguing this based on evolutionary evidence (they argue that a virus' evolutionary history and taxonomy can be determined by the structure of its protein coat, rather than DNA which is scant). I'm not sure if this constitutes life because the kicker for them always was that they don't carry out their own metabolism and can't reproduce on their own. Though there are obligate parasites that also need a host environment to reproduce. I'm a microbiologist and I'm still torn on the issue, I've always been taught they were non-living but there are other parasites that have been known to lose cellular DNA that's not needed, such as microsporidia, in a way similar to what's said viruses did. Of course there's no direct evidence for any of this and we can't look back in time to see exactly how and when they were formed anyway. The truth is it's probably more complex and there's a gradient where some large and complex viruses could be called living while others might not. It's all just semantics anyway, I feel you should just call it what it is and don't even distinguish between what's "alive" or not.

>>7619640
>>7619651
This.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:43:49 No.7619796 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541
nanomachines, son.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 17:53:49 No.7619811 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620052

>>7619782
Lol that definition almost fits women!
Cum buckets, anyway.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 19:21:46 No.7619986 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620013

>>7619541
Aliens

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 19:24:21 No.7619989 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541
NANOMACHINES SON

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1442164905428.gif, 44KiB, 320x240

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 19:27:29 No.7619993 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620060

>>7619687
>Deep

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 1443990826841.png, 2MiB, 1600x1600

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 19:38:02 No.7620013 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620050

>>7619986
YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE SPOOKY GHOST OF FERMI PARADOX

SELF-REPLICATING ALIEN NANOMACHINES MISINTERPRETED AS PSEUDO-LIFE WILL BE PRESENT EVERYWHERE, BUT ONLY IF YOU POST "ayy lmao" IN 4 THREADS TODAY

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO 22quantum2-articleLarge.jpg, 95KiB, 600x409

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:00:37 No.7620050 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7620013
YOU HAVE BEEN VISITED BY THE EINSTEIN OF SPOOKY ACTION AT A DISTANCE

SPIN ENTANGLEMENT AND FTL COMMUNICATIONS WILL COME TO YOU, BUT ONLY IF YOU POST "1/sqrt(2) (|thanks> + |fuck you>) Hensen&Hanson" IN A SUPERPOSITION OF 2 OR MORE ORTHOGONAL THREADS.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:00:51 No.7620052 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620084

>>7619811
If you're a randomly edgy 14-year old, then yes.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:06:23 No.7620060 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620066

>>7619993

I love these. absolutely novel.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:09:30 No.7620066 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7620060
*Tips fedora

Your welcome anon

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:24:49 No.7620084 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7620088 >>7622025

>>7620052
Here I'll do it for you:

Protein coat rather than DNA:
Obeys the dick that's fucking her rather than her father or her mother.
Don't carry out their own metabolism: In that they latch on to the metabolism of their partner. Might not be fact but certainly common for the woman to feel obliged to account for whatever state her male companiong might find herself in. Empathetic?
Can't reproduce on their own: Need the seed to reproduce.

You just keep churning out those cuck dollars, though, Anon. I'm proud of you even if she isn't.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:26:14 No.7620088 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7620084
Instead of obeys the dick that's fucking her, she obeys the man that's giving her facials. That nice protein coat.

Anonymous

Anonymous Tue 27 Oct 2015 20:42:21 No.7620116 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7622029

>>7619541
Recently some geneticist determined the splitting point between ancient bacteria and viruses. When someone thinks of a virus they generally think of a packet of DNA hidden in a protein casing while the geneticist in question argues that the protein packet is more on par with an unfertilized egg. Eventually it reaches a viable host and germinates coming alive via a take over of the host cells processes in order to reproduce. So I mean it's kinda alive it's kinda not but its all definitions so not very important.

What freaks me out more are prions which are essentially just proteins that go up to other proteins and say "You look different, look like me." and the other protein does. Then it spreads generally killing the host with us pretty much powerless to stop it. Prions are weird.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 00:44:22 No.7620533 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541
But they are.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 00:49:47 No.7620545 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619556
/thread

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 03:46:29 No.7620826 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7619541

Self replicating chemical compounds

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 17:53:06 No.7621988 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7622446

>>7619564
Hes talking about the biological viruses retard, not digital viruses

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 18:09:14 No.7622025 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7622380

>>7620084
Humor aside, really any organism can be considered a parasite of another. We're all parasites in some sense.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 18:11:33 No.7622029 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7620116
This is a good point I don't think we've discussed enough. If viruses are alive then why aren't prions? And at that, why aren't ribosomes & amino acids or DNA itself considered its own form of life? Where do we draw the line?

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 21:01:46 No.7622380 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7622442

>>7622025
Even non-life can be considered a parasite.
Fucking black holes are stealing our matter.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 21:29:54 No.7622442 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7623046

>>7622380
>Implying you own matter and matter isn't just random shit no one has any claim to
Humans are pretty self-centered eh?
Besides, what were you going to do with that matter? It's so far away.
Maybe black holes also feel they own that matter, or have better uses for it.

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 21:31:54 No.7622446 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7622599

>>7621988
So is he. Biological viruses are replicating code too...

Anonymous

Anonymous Wed 28 Oct 2015 22:39:14 No.7622599 Report Delete

Quoted By: >>7623020

>>7622446
So now you will say genes, RNA/DNA are just codes ?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 29 Oct 2015 01:53:54 No.7623020 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7622599
Are they not? It seems entirely plausible that life could have evolved to its current state using some alternative means of representing everything DNA does in a self-replicating manner.

Anonymous

View Same Google ImgOps iqdb SauceNAO big_thumb_53b063c9111c5c5bf6dcf7 (...).jpg, 61KiB, 736x491

Anonymous Thu 29 Oct 2015 02:04:14 No.7623046 Report Delete

Quoted By:

>>7622442
>teleports behind you
>nothing personal, Nerg'likar
>slashes alien anon with micron-fold sword

Subject

Name

E-mail

Password

Capcode	All Only User Posts Only Verified Posts Only Moderator Posts Only Manager Posts Only Admin Posts Only Developer Posts Only Founder Posts
Show Posts	All Only With Images Only Without Images Only Spoiler Images Only Non-Spoiler Images
Deleted Posts	All Only Deleted Posts Only Non-Deleted Posts
Ghost Posts	All Only Ghost Posts Only Non-Ghost Posts
Post Type	All Only Sticky Threads Only Opening Posts Only Reply Posts
Results	All Grouped By Threads
Order	Latest Posts First Oldest Posts First

On these boards

Your latest searches