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==== Cellularity==== | ==== Cellularity==== | ||
<videoflash type=vimeo>10274649|600</videoflash> | <videoflash type=vimeo>10274649|600|340</videoflash> | ||
The central idea behind this scenario is that we might one day understand life, not as a hard-edged category, but as a graduated scale between nonliving and living things. Each developmental stage in chemical cell biology is slightly more alive than the stage before. To formalize this idea, I designed a speculative definition of life named the “Cellularity Scale” which shows how five different living properties accumulate at each subsequent stage. Of course, this is a purely speculative definition of life, consistent with the scenario I have designed. If the Chell project or any of the several other bottom-up attempts at abiogenesis are successful, they will quite possibly offer an entirely different picture. | The central idea behind this scenario is that we might one day understand life, not as a hard-edged category, but as a graduated scale between nonliving and living things. Each developmental stage in chemical cell biology is slightly more alive than the stage before. To formalize this idea, I designed a speculative definition of life named the “Cellularity Scale” which shows how five different living properties accumulate at each subsequent stage. Of course, this is a purely speculative definition of life, consistent with the scenario I have designed. If the Chell project or any of the several other bottom-up attempts at abiogenesis are successful, they will quite possibly offer an entirely different picture. | ||