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Alien life: how would we know?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2003

Margaret A. Boden
Margaret A. Boden
Affiliation:
Centre for Cognitive Science, University of Sussex, Sussex, UK e-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

To recognize alien life, we would have to be clear about the defining criteria of ‘life’. Metabolism – in other words, biochemical fine-tuning – is one of these criteria. Three senses of metabolism are distinguished. The weakest allows strong artificial life (A-life): virtual creatures having physical existence in computer electronics, but not bodies, are classed as ‘alive’. The second excludes strong A-life but allows that some non-biochemical A-life robots could be classed as alive. The third, which stresses the body's self-production by energy budgeting and self-equilibrating energy exchanges of some (necessary) complexity, excludes both strong A-life and living non-biochemical robots.

Keywords

autopoiesislifeA-lifeartificial lifemetabolismself-organization
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , April 2003 , pp. 121 - 129
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper is adapted from Boden, M.A. (1999). Is metabolism necessary? Brit. J. Phil. Sci.50, 231–248.