Monica Butterfinger

We collected two caterpillars.  They both turned to chrysalises.  I worked yesterday with the chrysalis beside my monitor.  It was one of those days where I couldn't program fast enough to keep up with my brain.  I glanced at the little bug box and WHAM there was a big beautiful butterfly.  It was a crazy magic trick.  The butterfly had popped out without me noticing.  Kim took the monarch to her class and the class let it go.  The class named it "Monica Butterfinger".

I went walking and got to thinking about what life is.  I semi-decided, after much deliberation, that life, the most basic form, is a thing which has a sensor and "responder".  The responder can in some way change or change something given the sense.  Change implies time, but here "time" only means an ordered set of elements which point to different changes.  I suppose I need to say "organism" to clarify the difference between "the thing" and the attribute of life.  Anyhow, also, a sensor implies an environment of some sort.

If we agree on this, then we can begin asking about "intelligent life".  We can define that and find out if a venus fly trap is an intelligent life.  If we get the definitions straight we can also answer the question of whether an acorn is alive - or, if dead, when it "comes to life".  Again, the "when" is important because asking "when" something comes to life we have to be careful.  If time is an ordered set... is it continuous or discreet etc?

Now, to back up, although it does interest me to understand what life is, I'm just as interested (or maybe more interested) in how I answered the question.  I was also a bit astounded to find that wikipedia had just about the same conclusion.  Here is what wikipedia said, "Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not..."  My definition of life is a bit more general and maybe too general.  Anyhow, it was pretty close.  The point is that I have a way of categorizing and hierarchy building for defining what is what.

So, I grabbed an acorn and gave it to Kovi.  I asked him to think and not answer until later.  The question was, "Is the acorn alive?"  A few hours later he said, "Yes.  It's alive".  I haven't asked how he came to the conclusion, but  I'm curious to know and will ask later :)