Big Ideas: The Origin of Life
Simplifying Complexity
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Challenges in Defining Life
Defining life based on concepts like Darwinian evolution or self-sustainability often leads to challenges as any definition of life tends to include cases that are meant to be excluded and exclude cases that are meant to be included. For instance, Darwinian evolution is at the population level and excludes individual evolution, making it problematic to categorize life. Similarly, the concept of self-sustainability raises questions about where the boundaries are drawn in defining life.
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