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Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 12:50:53

http://www.businessinsider.com/groundbr ... in-2014-12
Here is a couple of excerpts " From the standpoint of physics, there is one essential difference between living things and inanimate clumps of carbon atoms: The former tend to be much better at capturing energy from their environment and dissipating that energy as heat. "
"Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life."
"Why does life exist?
Popular hypotheses credit a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning, and a colossal stroke of luck.
But if a provocative new theory is correct, luck may have little to do with it. Instead, according to the physicist proposing the idea, the origin and subsequent evolution of life follow from the fundamental laws of nature and “should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill.” Fascinating and this could mean that life is much more common than presumed and maybe thus intelligent life.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby Plantagenet » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 13:04:51

Thanks onlooker---thats very interesting news.

This new theory is another blow against the idea of god. If something unusual has to happen to get life started ---like a lightning bolt hitting a special pool of ooze----, then that unusual thing might be due to act of god giving the spark of life. But if the creation of life is just part of an inexorable natural process, then there is no need for god. Over time every pool of ooze will spontaneously become alive.

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Michaelangelo was wrong......given enough energy and time, every pool of ooze will eventually become alive thanks to physics!
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 13:09:54

Or Plant one can look it another way. If the universe has certain properties which facilitate life than that might suggest the existence of God. Why would these properties exist?
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby Plantagenet » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 13:36:17

The idea that God had to exist to get the universe started in just the right way was first presented by Thomas Aquinas. In our modern understanding, that would mean that god would predate the "Big Bang" and would direct it to occur so that life could exist.

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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby onlooker » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 13:43:45

Well I actually was hearing a show whereby a scientist who believes in God, said if they're was a big bang then they're must have been a banger.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 14:17:38

Nothing new here, Vasu Deva, the Sun god transcribed the first Vedas about 5,000 years ago & they say about the same thing. Life is everywhere in multiple universes, with the true purpose of disseminating the energy of the creator, as embodied in the sun & stars. The Hindus are going to adore this- so much for a thrust against God.

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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby evilgenius » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 14:18:34

Then where is all of the life that should be newly forming around us, even intermittently? As far as God goes, though, refuting this does not prove God. It only shows that conditions which prevailed at some point in the history of Earth were necessary for life to originate. If it were not so then we would see life spontaneously appearing all around us today. We do see evidence of evolution, but that is not the same thing.

And it isn't the dissipation of energy which denotes life. It's purposeful movement outside of that which the energy inputs would dictate that sets life aside from any pile of stuff sitting in a warm bath heated by the sun. Life is the only thing that goes where it wants to go, whether that is to randomly poke about seeking sustenance, proposition for sex, or go to the library.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby americandream » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 14:33:50

onlooker wrote:http://www.businessinsider.com/groundbreaking-idea-of-lifes-origin-2014-12
Here is a couple of excerpts " From the standpoint of physics, there is one essential difference between living things and inanimate clumps of carbon atoms: The former tend to be much better at capturing energy from their environment and dissipating that energy as heat. "
"Jeremy England, a 31-year-old assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has derived a mathematical formula that he believes explains this capacity. The formula, based on established physics, indicates that when a group of atoms is driven by an external source of energy (like the sun or chemical fuel) and surrounded by a heat bath (like the ocean or atmosphere), it will often gradually restructure itself in order to dissipate increasingly more energy. This could mean that under certain conditions, matter inexorably acquires the key physical attribute associated with life."
"Why does life exist?
Popular hypotheses credit a primordial soup, a bolt of lightning, and a colossal stroke of luck.
But if a provocative new theory is correct, luck may have little to do with it. Instead, according to the physicist proposing the idea, the origin and subsequent evolution of life follow from the fundamental laws of nature and “should be as unsurprising as rocks rolling downhill.” Fascinating and this could mean that life is much more common than presumed and maybe thus intelligent life.


Material dialecticism. Of course simplistic incompetents will seize on this as evident of a purpose (deliberately bolded for a reason I expect you to fathom yourself) driven omniscient being single mindedly devoted to the human project...well, incompetence, anthropocentric and tribalistic barbarism and as yet resolved primitivism in a partly conscious species are largely to blame for a world in which, innovated to a degree, we still have spear chuckers presuming to use many on the modern tools with disastrous consequences for us and this planet.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 14:46:29

Lol! Perhaps taking it all too seriously & expecting things to make sense is a big part of our problems.

The concept that we are fulfilling a 'divine purpose' by digging up billions of years worth of stored Carbon fits this theory.

Not mentioned in the article are some of the more complex developments in physics, such as multiple dimensions existing with perceived reality mostly obscuring most of these, despite their existence being essential to the structure. All very interesting, & the novelty factor progresses chaos theory nicely.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby efarmer » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 15:15:41

God is very fond of carbon and likes to make all kinds of stuff out of it.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby kiwichick » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 17:19:19

@ efarmer

are you on talking terms with her?

can you ask her what the winning Lotto tickets will be this week??
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby americandream » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 17:32:13

kiwichick wrote:@ efarmer

are you on talking terms with her?

can you ask her what the winning Lotto tickets will be this week??


Hahahahaha. Spilt my coffee there, ya bugger!!
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 17:49:12

kiwichick wrote:@ efarmer

are you on talking terms with her?

can you ask her what the winning Lotto tickets will be this week??

The numbers are obvious, you already have them, just wait long enough & they will come up ;)
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby jedrider » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 18:30:09

According to George Carlin (find it on YouTube), it was because GOD wanted PLASTICS: Therefore, life evolved until the point where mankind could convert the Earth's carbon stores to plastics. Once that is accomplished, there's no more need for mankind. QED.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby ennui2 » Mon 28 Mar 2016, 18:37:17

jedrider wrote:According to George Carlin (find it on YouTube), it was because GOD wanted PLASTICS: Therefore, life evolved until the point where mankind could convert the Earth's carbon stores to plastics. Once that is accomplished, there's no more need for mankind. QED.


To be broader, the article says that the overriding goal of life is to waste energy (dissipating heat = wasting energy). Hastening the ultimate heat-death of the universe. I'd say there's good evidence for that.

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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby dohboi » Tue 29 Mar 2016, 02:46:44

Shouldn't the emphasis be more on trying to save as much as possible of the life that actually does exist, rather than making up bogus theories about the purpose of life?

Here's a recent articles the pulls a number of recent developments together: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/3539 ... -on-itself

...the planet is warming a stunning 50 times faster than when it comes out of an ice age. The implications of the rapidity of this warming, for those who care to digest it emotionally, are horrifying.

...carbon emissions are now the highest they have been since the age of dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. According to the study, the current pace of emissions is even beyond the highest-known natural surge of carbon that exists in fossil records, an event that occurred 56 million years ago...

That ancient release, which drove temperatures up 5 degrees Celsius, is now surpassed by our current surge of carbon release. "Given currently available records, the present anthropogenic carbon release rate is unprecedented during the past 66 million years,"...

...the New Scientist reported in early March that earth had its highest-ever annual increase in carbon dioxide levels ever recorded...

...Greenland is occurring so intensely and quickly that it is "feeding on itself," according to a recently published scientific study. Greenland alone contains enough ice to raise global sea levels by 20 feet.

...In North America, millions of acres of forests are...under increasing threat, due to the fact that the speed at which the planetary climate is changing is now far, far ahead of the forests' ability to adapt to the hotter and drier conditions...

... a group affiliated with the UN recently released a study showing that an ongoing decline of pollinating species now poses a very dire threat to the global food supply...

...high-latitude insects, like those in Scotland, face severe declines in population...

...warming temperatures are impacting beetle populations, and hence the entire biodiversity of the Arctic...

...in the Arctic. With the ice disappearing and temperatures continuing to rise, the life cycles and numbers of fish, marine mammals, caribou and polar bears are being altered, which is causing Indigenous communities to face food shortages...

...rising sea levels, melting permafrost and other impacts...have positioned residents of the Arctic in a losing battle to stay in their homes...

...tropical rain forests ranging from the Amazon to the Philippines are vanishing far more abruptly than was previously believed...

In Africa, at least 36 million people are facing hunger due to record-high temperatures and drought...

...[GW] is already driving increases in rainfall and snowfall extremes around the world... This trend...will continue and likely amplify further...

...



That only gets you through a sliced up version of about half the article. The whole thing is worth a read. He used ACD for Anthropogenic Climate Disruption, aka GW/CC.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby americandream » Tue 29 Mar 2016, 03:22:59

After a raging war that took millions of lives and has left us with this nightmare in the ME (to extend the free market across the world), just how do you think this can be unravelled? This will either work itself out or we will end up toast, dude. Get used to the idea.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Tue 29 Mar 2016, 03:52:56

evilgenius wrote:Then where is all of the life that should be newly forming around us, even intermittently?

You seem to have no sense of time scales. The article used the word "gradually" which seems consistent with what is being talked about.

Do you expect to see mountains newly forming around us, and mountains eroding around us, when we're here for under 100ish years and a mountain might hang around for 100ish million?
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Tue 29 Mar 2016, 03:58:57

SeaGypsy wrote:Nothing new here, Vasu Deva, the Sun god transcribed the first Vedas about 5,000 years ago & they say about the same thing. Life is everywhere in multiple universes, with the true purpose of disseminating the energy of the creator, as embodied in the sun & stars. The Hindus are going to adore this- so much for a thrust against God.

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Actually, religion and science are completely different, even if they both try to describe the universe.

Saying "nothing new here" because of a Sun god isn't really saying anything about the scientific theory.
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Ground breaking new theory on why life exists

Unread postby SeaGypsy » Tue 29 Mar 2016, 04:55:25

Religion, science, describe the Universe culturally. There is limited objectivity & subjectivity in both, vested interest in creating or sustaining particular illusions, destroying others, they have very much in common.
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