From owner-biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Wed Jun 27 08:07:20 2001 Return-Path: Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id DA5E817A82 for ; Wed, 27 Jun 2001 08:07:18 +0100 (BST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3DDFB17B64 for ; Wed, 27 Jun 2001 08:07:14 +0100 (BST) Received: from niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (niobium [193.62.192.41]) by mercury.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id C961A17A8F for ; Wed, 27 Jun 2001 08:07:03 +0100 (BST) Received: (from news@localhost) by niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk (8.9.3+Sun/8.8.8) id IAA04027 for biophys-list@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk; Wed, 27 Jun 2001 08:02:38 +0100 (BST) X-Authentication-Warning: niobium.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk: news set sender to using -f Lines: 20 X-Admin: news@aol.com From: jared829@aol.com (Jared829) X-Newsgroups: bionet.biophysics Date: 27 Jun 2001 07:02:02 GMT Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Subject: Relativity Biology Part III Message-ID: <20010627030202.18398.00001042@ng-cq1.aol.com> To: biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Sender: owner-biophys@hgmp.mrc.ac.uk Precedence: bulk OK...Here's the third installment of my silly question series.... This question pertains to this planet that we call home. Is the earth alive? If we were able to view the earth in a time frame that we could perceive, would it exhibit characteristics that we normally reserve for "living" organisms? This question came to me one day while I was sitting on a bench having a break, right about sunset. At that time of day, it is possible for one to have wild flights of fancy, and I had one such fancy. It occurred to me that the 'time' that we perceive while we exist is slightly more than a fraction of a millisecond compared to the age of this planet, much less the universe (spare me the debate over the age of the universe...I've read about all the differing theories), so how pretentious of us it is to consider this planet an inanimate object consisting of wanton space debris, and whatnot... But I digress... Anyway...if we were able to accelerate time (watch the planet in fast forward, as it were) would it exhibit signs of a living organism? Thanx, Jared .