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The Next Big Idea

WHAT IS LIFE? (Part 1): A Mind-Bending Conversation with Sara Walker

Dec 17, 2024
Sara Walker, a theoretical physicist and astrobiologist at Arizona State University, delves into the intriguing concepts of life's origins and the search for it beyond Earth. She shares insights on assembly theory, exploring how life's complexity evolves over time. The conversation bridges scientific definitions of life with cultural perspectives, prompting listeners to rethink conventional views. Walker also discusses the philosophical dimensions of existence, emphasizing a spectrum of aliveness that challenges binary thinking and encompasses innovation, free will, and interconnectedness.
01:02:26

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • The podcast explores the ambiguity surrounding the definition of life, emphasizing complexity as a key distinguishing factor through assembly theory.
  • Innovative thinkers like Donald Hoffman and Lisa Feldman Barrett challenge traditional notions of reality and consciousness, prompting reassessments of these concepts.

Deep dives

The Nature of Life and Its Emergence

The podcast explores the complex question of what defines life and how it emerges from non-life. The speaker highlights the challenges in establishing a clear definition of life, noting that traditional criteria based on replication and metabolism often lead to ambiguities, such as the status of viruses and fire. The focus shifts to assembly theory, developed by Sarah Walker and her collaborators, which posits that life is characterized by the complexity and history of its molecular assembly. This theory suggests that life is the process of creating complex structures, as evidenced by the distinct assembly index—molecules from living organisms consistently exceed a threshold of complexity, indicating a significant difference between living and non-living entities.

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