scholarly journals Let the dice play God

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damiano Anselmi
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Life ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
Quantum Uncertainty ◽  
Amplification Mechanism ◽  
Unconscious Learning ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Brain ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Living Being

We define life as the amplification of quantum uncertainty up to macroscopic scales. A living being is any amplifier that achieves this goal. We argue that everything we know about life can be explained from this idea. We study a ladder mechanism to estimate the probability that the amplification occurs spontaneously in nature. The amplification mechanism is so sensitive to small variations of its own parameters that it acts as a bifurcation itself, i.e. it implies that the universe is either everywhere dead or alive wherever possible. Since the first option is excluded by the existence of life on earth, we infer that the universe hosts a huge number of inhabited planets (possibly one per star on average). We also investigate models of conscious and unconscious learning processes, as well as the structure of the brain and evolution. Finally, we address the problem of creating artificial life.

PHILOSOPHY AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

Think ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (60) ◽  
pp. 33-49
Author(s):  
William Lyons
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Meaning Of Life ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eternal Life ◽  
Evolution Of The Universe ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

The author sets out to respond to the student complaint that ‘Philosophy did not answer “the big questions”’, in particular the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ The response first outlines and evaluates the most common religious answer, that human life is given a meaning by God who created us and informs us that this life is just the pilgrim way to the next eternal life in heaven. He then discusses the response that, from the point of view of post-Darwinian science and the evolution of the universe and all that is in it, human life on Earth must be afforded no more meaning than the meaning we would give to a microscopic planaria or to some creature on another planet in a distant universe. All things including human creatures on Planet Earth just exist for a time and that is that. There is no plan or purpose. In the last sections the author outlines the view that it is we humans ourselves who give meaning to our lives by our choices of values or things that are worth pursuing and through our resulting sense of achievement or the opposite. Nevertheless the question ‘What is the meaning of life?’ can mean quite different things in different contexts, and so merit different if related answers. From one point of view one answer may lie in terms of the love of one human for another.

Trinity Metaphysics

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-116
Author(s):  
Nikita A. Solovyev ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Quantum Object ◽  
Material Body ◽  
Modern Cosmology ◽  
Ontological Model ◽  
Mental Space ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Other World ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Living Being

A ternary ontological model in which the living being is a triad of I – form – substrate is described. I is an intangible subject, contemplating the content of consciousness and controlling the material body, which is the unity of the form and the substrate. The contents of consciousness are connected both with the form of the body, which I contemplate in the inner “mental space” in the form of in­formation, and with the substrate, which embodies the forms of the body and is responsible for sensations and intentions. The problem of control of the material body by the non-material self is solved under the assumption that the human brain is a quantum object. The ternary model of a living being is inscribed in an absolute ontology, in which the Absolute also has a threefold structure and is the unstitched unity of the absolute I, the absolute Form and the absolute Sub­strate. The Absolute creates the other world with its threefold energies, which provides the threefold structure of a living being. The created world arises from the timeless world of the potential possibilities of the Universe, which modern cosmology associates with its wave function. Created entities arise in the process of alienation from the Absolute, resulting in free will.

scholarly journals Multiple Parenchymal Neurocysticercosis: A Case Report

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
I KC ◽  
KJ Rana ◽  
R Joshi ◽  
A Mandal ◽  
S Bhhatarai
Keyword(s):  
Rare Case ◽  
Taenia Solium ◽  
Parasitic Infection ◽  
Brain Parenchyma ◽  
Larval Form ◽  
Cns Involvement ◽  
Huge Number ◽  
Adult Tapeworm ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Multiple Cysts

Cysticercosis is a parasitic infection with CNS involvement in 60-90% of infested patients. The larval form of pork intestinal tapeworm (Taenia solium) is responsible for cysticercosis. Humans are the definitive hosts and usually harbor the adult tapeworm in small intestine as an asymptomatic infestation. Neurocysticercosis most commonly affects the brain parenchyma. Solitary and multiple cysts in brain parencyma is common but we came across a 24 year old lady patient with huge number of cysts which is relatively rare. The aim of this article is to report the rare case. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/mjsbh.v10i1.6450 Medical Journal of Shree Birendra Hospital Jan-June 2011 10(1) 44-45

scholarly journals Energy, genes and evolution: introduction to an evolutionary synthesis

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1622) ◽  
pp. 20120253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Lane ◽  
William F. Martin ◽  
John A. Raven ◽  
John F. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Evolutionary Synthesis ◽  
Past Century ◽  
Major Transitions ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Energy Harnessing ◽  
Emergence Of Life ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Planetary Habitability ◽  
Origin Of Eukaryotes

Life is the harnessing of chemical energy in such a way that the energy-harnessing device makes a copy of itself. No energy, no evolution. The ‘modern synthesis’ of the past century explained evolution in terms of genes, but this is only part of the story. While the mechanisms of natural selection are correct, and increasingly well understood, they do little to explain the actual trajectories taken by life on Earth. From a cosmic perspective—what is the probability of life elsewhere in the Universe, and what are its probable traits?—a gene-based view of evolution says almost nothing. Irresistible geological and environmental changes affected eukaryotes and prokaryotes in very different ways, ones that do not relate to specific genes or niches. Questions such as the early emergence of life, the morphological and genomic constraints on prokaryotes, the singular origin of eukaryotes, and the unique and perplexing traits shared by all eukaryotes but not found in any prokaryote, are instead illuminated by bioenergetics. If nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of energetics. This Special Issue of Philosophical Transactions examines the interplay between energy transduction and genome function in the major transitions of evolution, with implications ranging from planetary habitability to human health. We hope that these papers will contribute to a new evolutionary synthesis of energetics and genetics.

scholarly journals From cosmos to intelligent life: the four ages of astrobiology

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Gleiser
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Elements ◽  
Life Forms ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
First Stars ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Big Bang ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Intelligent Life

AbstractThe history of life on Earth and in other potential life-bearing planetary platforms is deeply linked to the history of the Universe. Since life, as we know, relies on chemical elements forged in dying heavy stars, the Universe needs to be old enough for stars to form and evolve. The current cosmological theory indicates that the Universe is 13.7 ± 0.13 billion years old and that the first stars formed hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang. At least some stars formed with stable planetary systems wherein a set of biochemical reactions leading to life could have taken place. In this paper, I argue that we can divide cosmological history into four ages, from the Big Bang to intelligent life. The physical age describes the origin of the Universe, of matter, of cosmic nucleosynthesis, as well as the formation of the first stars and Galaxies. The chemical age began when heavy stars provided the raw ingredients for life through stellar nucleosynthesis and describes how heavier chemical elements collected in nascent planets and Moons gave rise to prebiotic biomolecules. The biological age describes the origin of early life, its evolution through Darwinian natural selection and the emergence of complex multicellular life forms. Finally, the cognitive age describes how complex life evolved into intelligent life capable of self-awareness and of developing technology through the directed manipulation of energy and materials. I conclude discussing whether we are the rule or the exception.

INTERPRETATION OF SPACE AND TIME IN ONTOLOGICAL PHILOSOPHY NAVOI

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Toji Omonovich Norov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human Intelligence ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Holy Book

The universe, the space that make up their basis planets in it, their creation, the main essence of their creation, form, composition, meaning, movements, interactions, their influence on human life and activities, the role of man in the universe and in life on Earth, life, the criteria of activity and processes occurring in time and space have long been of interest to humanity. One of the main problems in the history of philosophy is the question of space and time. This problem was defined in different ways in the great schools of thought by thinkers of different periods. One of these great thinkers is Alisher Navoi. Navoi's works, along with other socio-philosophical themes, uniquely express and analyze the problems of the firmament and time. Its main feature is that it is based on the divine (pantheistic) religion, Islam, its holy book, the Koran and other theological sources, as well as on the secrets of nature and the Universe, the main miracle of Allah - human intelligence, the power of enlightenment, they are the key revealing all these secrets.

The Observer Effect: The Artistic Image as a Metaphor for Scientific Interpretations of the Natural World

Leonardo ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-78
Author(s):  
Elena Gubanova
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Scientific Study ◽  
Observer Effect ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Artistic Images ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
Artistic Image ◽  
The Universe

In this article, the author presents some of her artworks in which she created artistic images and interpretations of time, space and light that define human life on Earth. In her multimedia installations of the last 10 years, her interest in the scientific study of the universe has been interwoven with her experience as the daughter of an astronomer. The author and her husband collaborate to express their thoughts on science and philosophy through a combination of art and engineering solutions and technologies.

What Cries Out

Atopias ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frédéric Neyrat
Keyword(s):  
Political Life ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Its Analysis ◽  
The World ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Sense Of Wonder ◽  
Living Being

The conclusion, “What Cries Out,” argues that there is no relation without atopia. Here the book unfolds the implications of its analysis for translation, ecology, and political life. When each philosophical concept and each living being contains an out-of-place, then the world is a relational field composed of out-of-fields. The metaphysical propositions of philosophy make liveable the space between the immemorial and the end of time, restoring a sense of wonder about the existence of the universe.

Life as It Could Be

2020 ◽  
pp. 101-114
Author(s):  
Luis Campos
Keyword(s):  
Synthetic Biology ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
The Future ◽  
Forms Of Life ◽  
Life On Earth ◽  
The Universe

This chapter explores the intersection between two related fields: synthetic biology and astrobiology. Pushing the engineering of life past traditional limits in molecular biology and expanding the envelope of life to forms never before extant, synthetic biologists are now beginning to design experimental ways of getting at what astrobiologists have long suspected: that the life known here on Earth is but a subset of vast combinatorial possibilities in the universe. The resonances between the future engineered possibilities of this world and speculations about possible biologies on habitable others are not merely happenstance. Indeed, there is a curious and compelling deeper history interlinking scientific speculation about new forms of life elsewhere in the universe with visions for the human-directed engineering of new forms of life on Earth. For decades, the astrobiological and the synthetic biological have mutually inspired each other and overlapped in powerful genealogical ways.

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