Fun overview of some quandaries surrounding the fuzzy concepts we call life and death. However, he makes the mistake of using the very terms he hopes to define: Mitochondria...are not alive anymore! Um, according to what criteria? Isnt the whole point of this video that we have yet to firmly establish such criteria? Also, the first big question at the end, which is clearly meant to be a whoa moment of Keanu Reevesian proportions, is only quasi-deep in my opinion. If everything in the universe is made of the same stuff, does this mean everything in the universe is dead or that everything in the universe is alive? Look, yes, its important to drive home the point that theres no clear boundary between life and non-life, and that whatever difference exists between the two has nothing to do with the basic stuff things are made of, but that doesnt mean it suddenly makes sense to say Everythings alive! or Everythings dead! Clearly, life is not a matter of matter, but of certain types of arrangements and interrelationships among matter. The same can be said of consciousness and other mental phenomena.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 05:38:01 +0000