Etiquette



DP Etiquette

First rule: Don't be a jackass. Most people are good.

Other rules: Do not attack or insult people you disagree with. Engage with facts, logic and beliefs. Out of respect for others, please provide some sources for the facts and truths you rely on if you are asked for that. If emotion is getting out of hand, get it back in hand. To limit dehumanizing people, don't call people or whole groups of people disrespectful names, e.g., stupid, dumb or liar. Insulting people is counterproductive to rational discussion. Insult makes people angry and defensive. All points of view are welcome, right, center, left and elsewhere. Just disagree, but don't be belligerent or reject inconvenient facts, truths or defensible reasoning.

Thursday, August 14, 2025

How do YOU define “life”?

Interesting subject in my BigThink weekly newsletter today.  It’s about defining “life.”  I’ll include a link to the full article here (it's short and worth the read, IMO ... it might give you some new ideas), but the takeaways are as follows:

  • Defining life has long been a deceptively tricky problem.
  • With only Earth's lifeforms to study, scientists might overlook strange forms of alien life on future space missions.
  • While traits like energy intake and reproduction seem universal, the search for life must remain open to unexpected forms, writes astrobiologist Dirk Schulze-Makuch. [highlights by me]


Question: Were do you draw the line to "what constitutes life?"  Is life just a fuzzy ill-defined place on the "life continuum?"  Or, is it a hard and fast call for you?  If so, explain.
 
(by PrimalSoup)


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)