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Is The Universe Alive?

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Life is that special thing that has been found nowhere else but here on earth

Have you looked? Several known exoplanets are candidates for life, unfortunately we do not (yet) have the equipment to investigate properly. And the universe is big, very big. We have so far found thousands of exoplanets in around the 1% volume of our own galaxy. There is much more than 1% of our own galaxy to investigate.

If the only life in the universe exists on a small, insignificant planet on the edge of the western spiral arm of our galaxy then the universe is an awful waste of space.



The most that has been found elsewhere is the right elements to make bodies from. No life in that

That we know of, you cannot make definitive statements about what is unknown
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
How can Life exist in something that's not alive? From where does life originate?

Life is a complex collection of chemical reactions. none of the individual molecules is alive. Life is the way they interact.

So, life arises from non-life by the accumulation of the right chemicals that then interact.

Nobody knows the details of how that happened, but we know much more than we did 50 years ago.
 

Straw Dog

Well-Known Member
What say you? Is the Universe Alive?

If by alive, you mean active, dynamic, and evolving, then yes.

If you mean a sentient organism, then no. To claim that everything is equally alive would really confuse our value systems. We need to value life more than non-life. Otherwise, we could claim that a dead person is no different from a living person.
 

Polymath257

Think & Care
Staff member
Premium Member
Let's go through a number of the criteria that are used to decide if something is alive:

1. Does it grow? Yes, the universe is expanding.

2. Does it reproduce? No, the universe does not reproduce itself.

3. Does it maintain internal state (homeostasis)? No, the universe is cooling as it expands as would be expected from thermodynamics.

4. Does it move? It isn't even clear what it would mean for the universe as a whole to move.

5. Does it have a metabolism (ingesting things for nourishment and using the components to build itself)? No, the universe is not ingesting anything from outside of it as far as we can tell.

6. Does it respond to stimuli? Again, no, there are no external stimuli for the universe to respond to.

So, for this list, there is one answer consistent with being alive and the rest are not.

Conclusion: the universe is not alive.
 

Salty Booger

Royal Crown Cola (RC)
Life would have to be defined very broadly to consider the universe as alive. Certainly most of it is growing, expanding, but it appears to be majority inorganic elements with some molecules thrown in.

Why must it be defined broadly when it is standing right there where you are? You are the whole package. You came from one source, the Universe. I don't understand why people are struggling with this. It is very easy to grasp.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Why must it be defined broadly when it is standing right there where you are? You are the whole package. You came from one source, the Universe. I don't understand why people are struggling with this. It is very easy to grasp.

Several of the parameters used to define life are missing, to say the universe is alive means omitting those parameters.

The marble floor i am standing on also came from the source, is that alive?
 

PearlSeeker

Well-Known Member
Let's go through a number of the criteria that are used to decide if something is alive:

1. Does it grow? Yes, the universe is expanding.

2. Does it reproduce? No, the universe does not reproduce itself.

3. Does it maintain internal state (homeostasis)? No, the universe is cooling as it expands as would be expected from thermodynamics.

4. Does it move? It isn't even clear what it would mean for the universe as a whole to move.

5. Does it have a metabolism (ingesting things for nourishment and using the components to build itself)? No, the universe is not ingesting anything from outside of it as far as we can tell.

6. Does it respond to stimuli? Again, no, there are no external stimuli for the universe to respond to.

So, for this list, there is one answer consistent with being alive and the rest are not.

Conclusion: the universe is not alive.
Have you considered universe as a part of Multiverse? Then things like reproduction are possible.
 
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