Hi everyone,
I’m not very knowledgeable about science, so I’m struggling to understand the notion that viruses aren’t “alive”, and the robot analogies people use. I understand that they don’t have some of the characteristics (cells, ability to reproduce), but my mind can’t wrap itself around the notion that they’re like objects. Can you please give some examples that could explain this in a way that is accessible to someone who isn’t very advanced in the subject?
Thanks
EDIT: wow thanks so much guys for so many amazing replies!!!
In: 29
A virus is too simple to exhibit the complex behavior of a living system. It is a container for genetic material with one function, to plug into a cell and replicate. A cell assembles multiple structures within itself. If you were to break it down further, those individual parts by themselves wouldn’t be “alive” either.
A robot could be made quite complex to move and react to the enviroment, but an individual processor within it can’t do those things.
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