Philosophy
fromBig Think
3 days agoWhy organisms are more than machines
Organisms exhibit self-directed, purposive activity that distinguishes life from inert matter, implying intelligence is rooted in living processes beyond mere computation.
There are basic technical grounds to be skeptical of that claim, but beyond that, a much deeper issue lies at the boundary between science and philosophy: What makes life different from non-life? Why is a rock inert and insensate, while even the simplest cell manifests open-ended activity in the relentless pursuit of staying alive? Since the only systems that indisputably display intelligence are alive, if we can't understand life, we're probably missing something essential about intelligence.