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
>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
I feel like you’ve created kind of a [false dichotomy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dilemma) for yourself. I don’t fully understand what you mean by “they’re like objects” but I’d guess from the context of your whole post you’re trying to say something like “it’s not alive so it’s basically a piece of rock”. That’s not the case. “Alive” is just a very very **very** special category of things and just because most things are “not alive” does not mean “all not alive things are the same”. There are objects that are blue and there are objects that aren’t, but that doesn’t mean all objects that *aren’t* blue are alike. They just share the characteristic of not being in the category “blue” – that’s it.
Don’t think of a virus as a rock, it isn’t. If you’re trying to wrap your head around why it *is* like a rock then this is the reason you’re failing!
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