Our intuitive concept of ‘life’ conflates two concepts: the ability to reproduce and complexity. Many would consider a machine made by an advanced civilization (but incapable of reproduction) as ‘alive’; meanwhile, one might hesitate to call prions ‘alive’, despite their capacity to replicate, merely due to their simplicity.
Our intuitive concept of ‘life’ conflates two concepts: the ability to reproduce and complexity. Many would consider a machine made by an advanced civilization (but incapable of reproduction) as ‘alive’; meanwhile, one might hesitate to call prions ‘alive’, despite their capacity to replicate, merely due to their simplicity.