ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

184 Viruses/Ambiguous Life Forms
9 Viruses/Ambiguous Life Forms
9.1 What Is the Essence of Living Matter
Oparin (1938) proposed that living matter be defined as having the following
properties: metabolism, self-reproduction, and mutability. Eigen (1971) observed
that these criteria could be met by decidedly non-biological entities such as von
Neumann’s “self-reproducing automata,” or various robots. Even some simple
biological systems are somewhat ambiguous regarding their “life-like” status.
Primitive systems which blur the distinction between animate and inanimate
include viruses, prions (protein crystals which may be causative agents in some
human diseases) and proteinoids (self organizing protein assemblies) implicated
in life’s origins (Fox, 1972). Independent cytoskeletal elements also have
characteristics of being “alive.” The slithering microtubules which R. D. Allen
and colleagues (1985) isolated from squid axoplasm ambulate, avoid collisions,
and have a sense of direction. Are they alive If future technologies lead to
nanoscale replicating automata, the distinction between living and nonliving
entities will be further clouded.
9.2 Virus (Mis)Behavior
Among the more basic varieties of life are viruses. Their simple structure and
activities have prompted questions as to whether they are actually “alive,” or are
merely chemical robots which multiply and reside within truly living organisms.
Viruses form spontaneously as their simple subunits assemble into complex three
dimensional structures. The assembly process, driven by the increased stability or
lowered energy of the completed virus, flows against the second law of
thermodynamics which dictates that order proceeds to disorder. Data from the
tobacco mosaic virus (Chapter 6) show that hydrophobic interactions which
exclude water from unassembled subunits offset the increase in order (negative
entropy) of the assembled virus.