So, understanding life’s scales of interaction is how to study life?
“How might the properties of life change at different scales, from microscopic organisms to entire planets?”
I always answer a specific question through Virginia Klenk’s textbook, “Understanding Symbolic Logic”, and relating the question to what the question refers to. Sara asks this question assuming that I studied her question, and did the exercise, so I can see how the patterns of emergence relates to scaling when answering this question. Now that I understand why this question was asked, I do the boring work. The question is posed logically. It passes the test, but only after working it through what she taught me. I’m learning. I won’t repeat this paragraph in the future. Please hold me to account if I err on future answers to the course questions. I am considering a college entrance essay for someone who has some college, which I have. Here it goes.
The properties of life might change at different scales depending on the rules. On our planet, we have rules. Do I know all the rules? No. Does anyone? No. Will I, you, or any single one human know all the rules? No. Thank “Took” for A.I. The emergence of A.I. took this planet producing microscopic life to us to make A.I. occur. Under the “properties of life”, how do different scales work here on Earth? I ask this question first because I only have this planet to study, but how an Astro-Biologist asks is the same way I do. I once read that hunting needn’t necessarily have emerged here. If hunting never emerged, would we be here? No. We are a unique assemblage from that “life emergence” property here. Our specie, from what we know, grew big brains from scavenging meat to grow big brains, but we only did that while observing nature, processing that information, and engaging in the desire for a better way to get more meat. When meat is cooked, we happen to digest it even better than when that meat is raw for our big brain development. Now, imagine that if they made that transition while living in savannas. Savannas burn a lot from lightning strikes which kill, and cook critters. Did our human ancestors (some former human species) desire bigger brains? They wanted to eat, and already possessed the ability to eat critters, and as soon as they could, devised ways to use tools to replicate this process of having cooked meat as often as possible. I use this example as a good way to study why a mostly vegetarian species of human unwittingly influenced our present. Now we hunt the supermarket.
All the ingredients to answer the question are in that example. Hunting may or may not have given us the big brain, but hunting was an emergent thing on this planet, and the article I read so long ago allows me to answer it.
Hunting occurred early here. When human species could hunt, they did. I’ll say that until life is found outside Earth, if ever, I don’t ever think our distant offspring will visit that life because that other planet will be eons of distance from us. For now, I guess that the properties of life changing at differing scales from microscopic organisms to entire planets always depends on the planet in question. What rules some other planet must follow to produce what properties of life is only known through our rules. I can imagine a planet creating the hunting behavior only through our rules. I can’t understand how some people argue that life could exist on Jupiter as gigantic balloons floating in the clouds, or that any other element other than carbon could produce life. Assuming that life requires microscopic to anything larger is all I can see happening, no matter how cool it would be to find life in Jupiter’s clouds. I believe the patterns require the same rules as the “logic machine” at this lesson’s end.