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Is the Milky Way Alive?

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posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:03 PM
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Not sure where to put this, so it went in website related.

Anyway, I was reading through this month's American Scientific, and they had an article of HVCs and IVCs. And it got me thinking. What constitutes life? First, the Milky Way eats, it's currently devouring at least 2 galaxies, and more then likely has eaten more.

But this is the part I wasn't aware of: It also breaths. It seems that IVCs are expelled out of our galactic plane, while HVCs get inhaled into it. Which is why, it is theorized, old stars and new stars have relativly the same component atoms. One would expect that with every supernova, heavier elements would be created and the stars would keep containing more and more heavy elements. Unless it turned out to be getting hydrogen from an outside source.

So our galaxy breaths, it eats, it moves, it experiences entropy, it also experiences...dang, what's the word...er...unentropy, in forming new stars out of the chaos. So would this constitute life?

[Edited on 1-23-2004 by junglejake]



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:07 PM
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All I know is that I DO NOT want to be near the back end of it!



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:16 PM
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Scientific American? I think that's on the coffee table.


Are you saying from chaos life is constituted?



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:18 PM
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Looking more for a definition of what life is. The Milkey Way Galaxy creates order out of chaos. Stars out of clouds of hydrogen. Planets. Moons, and, as we see here on earth, life. So would something that can do this be considered a life form?



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:19 PM
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I thought the milky way was the galaxy earth is in?
Are u saying are galaxy is eating other galaxies?
Come to think about it I know that sometimes galaxys run into each other creating an even bigger galaxie, maybe thats what the milkey way is doing

[Edited on 23-1-2004 by Eternal]



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:26 PM
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Well, if you are talking about it having a 'life cycle', that being a birth and death, then I suppose that sounds right.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:30 PM
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The milkey way currently is devouring 2 satelite galaxies which are a lot smaller then it. By devour, of course, I mean the Milkey Way's gravitational forces are sucking in the galaxy's gas and in one of the cases, there's a stream of stars coming in, too.

And yeah, the Milkey Way is our galaxy.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:41 PM
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Well, when defining life forms, I see it as trying to discriminate between one thing and say, another.

It seems everything 'breathes'. Like the dirt, and the plants. It's the dance of shiva!! Well I don't know about that but perhaps since all of these things (us, the plants, the galaxies) exist together we behave in a similar way, regardless of obvious differences.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:45 PM
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Think bigger, and also smaller. The entire universe could be considered life, as well as subatomic particles.

[Edited on 1-23-2004 by Satyr]



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 04:50 PM
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So then what would constitute life? Self awareness? If that were the case, then plants wouldn't be alive.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 07:44 PM
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Originally posted by junglejake
So then what would constitute life? Self awareness? If that were the case, then plants wouldn't be alive.


Define Self-awareness - aware of your surroundings, aware of your yourself (body), or aware of thoughts and feelings. Feel free to use any and all of the three as you see fit. And don't hesitate to think of others.

Plants are aware of their surroundings - enviroment. Flowers open in the morning and close in the night. They are also aware of their own bodies - the Venus Flytrap as an example - it feels when an insect is on it and WHAM, supper's on.

Perhaps a condition for life is also a reason to act, to live. All living creatures on earth have one reason for their actions - reproducing. Quite a lot of them are interested in their survival, so food and water becomes a reason for acting along side of reproduction, or in some cases, surpasses it.

It's intresting to think as the universe as a living entity. But I can't consider it as one. The Milky Way is not self-aware nor has it any point to it's actions.

But it is nice to ponder once in a while.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:04 PM
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This is an interesting topic. Can life come from something that is not alive? Are we an oops? Was it designed? Or is there order in the universe that saw to it we happened. This would seem to me to be the main arguement to evolution.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:10 PM
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Next to Welfare Programs the largest resource
investment around is Education. Judging by the
posts above, either society is not getting its
investment back, or nobody besides JuanBond
has ever paid attention in class.

What is the First and Primary characteristic of Life.....
come on, you dont remember your Biology?
Juan Bond said it...........Life is something that is
capable of reproducing itself. Show an example
of a Galaxy that pops out a new, minature Galaxy.
(Gravity would appear to prohibit that.) Once
you have that, then this discussion would move
into the cosmology section of Scientific American.

/\/ight\/\/ing



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:14 PM
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Interesting, theory. Definately interesting. But, it only 'breathes' in a sense. It doesn't breathe like any living organism we know of, it just sort of 'gathers' it into its "bowels" so to speak. I may be mistaken, but doesn't a living organism have to 'think' as well??

-wD



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:19 PM
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Nightwing, there are more ways to approach reality than what is taught in schools. That's all I can say really.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:27 PM
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Survival of the species is important as well. Look at lemmings, they will sacrifice masses to maintain the species. There is more than reproduction. A survival device.



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:32 PM
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Hmmm... wonderful topic! I like it. Maybe it does breathe. Maybe all the Galixies out there are spirits, dead or unborn.... that would be interesting!



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:36 PM
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There is more than reproduction. - intrepid

Of course, but the statement above was the
FIRST and Primary characteristic.

Until you actually have a species, why talk about their
survival instincts?

/\/ight\/\/ing



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:40 PM
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It's a semantic question, I guess 'eat' is a metaphor here

(metaphor=one thing is likened to and speaked of as if another thing, poetic substitution, mundane thing as symbol of abstract)



posted on Jan, 23 2004 @ 08:45 PM
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Requiem - Nightwing, there are more ways to
approach reality than what is taught in schools. That's
all I can say really.



I'm Listening.


/\/ight\/\/ing







 
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