Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!sun4nl!ktibv!rdb
From: rdb@ktibv.uucp (The Graphical Gnome)
Subject: Re: Life vs. metalife?
Message-ID: <1994Sep7.104309.21889@ktibv.uucp>
Organization: KTI BV
References: <yLe4Rc2w165w@alcyone.darkside.com> <billt.22.00030422@rmii.com> <34dpscINNfd0@srvr1.engin.umich.edu> <gripCvp9D6.L23@netcom.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Sep 1994 10:43:09 GMT
Lines: 22

grip@netcom.com (Lawrence E. Bryan) writes:

>Theodore C. Belding (streak@counter.engin.umich.edu) wrote:

>: How would you classify a bee hive or an ant colony?  Or a Portuguese 
>: man-of-war?  Are these exceptions?  To say that a group is generally not
>: alive seems to beg the question of "what is a group in contrast to an
>: individual"?
>: -Ted

>I agree totally about ants (and probably bees). All one has to do is 
>consider the nest as a whole and think about it as a single living entity 
>and the obviousness of this be comes very compelling. True it is a very 
>different form in so many ways such as, for example, locomotion. An ant 
>nest doesn't change it's position readily. But it does twist around a 
>locus, expanding and contracting to rhythms of food and danger.

I do not completely agree with this. Look at moving ants. They have no
fixed nest, but move around. You could say that that is a highly
specialised living "thing" of about 20 kg (See Dawkins).

The Graphical Gnome (rdb@ktibv.nl)
