Hey Platt,
interesting question
I have wondered about a will to live also...
Charles Shulz (whoever wrote Peanuts) died right after doing
his last comic strip. I heard a lot of times a person dies
soon after their spouse dies. Stories like this make me wonder
about a 'choice factor' in dying.
erin
>Hi Jonathan:
>
>Quick question. Is it possible to measure and quantify the desire on the
>part of organisms to live?
>
>I ask because the MOQ posits a battle between the biological and
>inorganic levels and was wondering what force the biological level might
>have or tap into that helps it win some of the battles. I know vitalism has
>been thoroughly discredited by science, but how does biology explain
>the observable "will to live" or the "survival instinct?"
>
>From what I can find out, life is defined mostly by what it does, basically
>self-replication and mutability, among other things. But, being alive
>ourselves, we feel that life is more than the ability to do certain things,
>but rather IS something--a process, flow, an energy--something that
>persists in time "inside us" that we wish to continue. Anything
>measurable along those lines?
>
>Thanks.
>Platt
>
>
>
>MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
>Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
>MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
>
>To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
>http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
MOQ.ORG - http://www.moq.org
Mail Archive - http://alt.venus.co.uk/hypermail/moq_discuss/
MD Queries - horse@darkstar.uk.net
To unsubscribe from moq_discuss follow the instructions at:
http://www.moq.org/md/subscribe.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Oct 25 2002 - 16:06:16 BST