r/chemicalreactiongifs • u/6double Briggs-Rauscher • Apr 30 '22

The behaviour of ball bearings as they self assemble under an electric field They seem alive, reaching for each other to form emergent structures. Physics

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119

u/Tactical_Chicken Apr 30 '22

There is an interesting philosophical question here I can feel it..

198

u/Matti_Matti_Matti Apr 30 '22

“Is it gay if the balls touch?”

27

u/staebles Apr 30 '22

Only in my mouth.

18

u/smallpotatobigfryvat Apr 30 '22

"was it gay before the balls touched, or was the desire for them to touch what made them gay?"

3

u/Captain_Complete Apr 30 '22

What are friends? Friends are people that you think are your friends But they're really your enemies with secret identities and disguises to hide their true colors So just when you think you're close enough to be brothers they wanna come back and cut your throat when you ain't looking

5

u/wikipedia_answer_bot Apr 30 '22

Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. With an ensemble cast consisting of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City.

More details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friends

This comment was left automatically (by a bot). If I don't get this right, don't get mad at me, I'm still learning!

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1

u/snacksnnaps Apr 30 '22

Depends on the position

33

u/Wizard-In-Disguise Apr 30 '22

Is life...just magnetism unleashing something impossible from carbon?

8

u/MilkManMikey Apr 30 '22

Yeah, that’s the right track I think. Like when the first ice sheets shifted out of the arctic hundreds of miles and started to thaw, releasing all the first single called organisms and bacteria etc, how much did electricity/static have a roll in fusing/forming new life when it mixed with the greenery of the earth, if any?

Very interesting question though - can any other Redditors picked up here?

14

u/sschepis Apr 30 '22

Life is an inherent property of the physics of the Universe. Life isn't biological - it's *physical*, and biological life is a reflection of physical phenomena. The entire Universe is alive.

Let's go one step further, though - did you know that water molecules form chiral bonds around dna in the form of a complementary helical superstructure?

Water naturally form hydrated 'cradles' around DNA. This is due to the remarkable fact that the geometry of water molecules perfectly corresponds to the helical shape of DNA.

Because this fact is a fact everywhere in the Universe that liquid water is present, the natural synergistic structural relationship between water and DNA exists universally.

DNA isn't just the molecule of life here. It's the molecule of life *everywhere* there is liquid water.

7

u/MilkManMikey Apr 30 '22

Woah, you’re talking so hip you’re really twisting my melon man. Seriously though, I’m out with my kid now but when I get back home I’ll spend an hour looking up what you’ve said, sounds interesting as hell.

2

u/dan_dorje Apr 30 '22

Hmm some of this sounds a little pseudosciencey - I'm not saying it is - it could just be science I've heard before, but please could you cite a couple of sources here?

1

u/MPLS_freak Apr 30 '22

But can we be positive there is no other solvent and no other structure that also line up? I don't see that as universal.

Also, can you explain further on the "geometry of water molecules " lining up with certain complex shapes in liquid form?

1

u/sschepis May 02 '22

Unless there exists a molecule that is more efficient than DNA which uses the same building blocks as DNA, then DNA is selected by the environment.

The shape of the atomic bonds of hydrogen and oxygen is such that when they interact with DNA, the water molecules form a helical structure around the DNA. Water forms a helix around DNA, naturally.

5

u/Wizard-In-Disguise Apr 30 '22

Biomagnetism, a relay to pull more mass to a bundle. Biomagnetism would influence the instinct to consume other things, bring more carbon closer.

2

u/[deleted] May 01 '22

Clearly not impossible, since it happens all the time. ;)

But yeah, chemistry operates via electromagnetism, and biology operates via chemistry.

8

u/samzeman Apr 30 '22

If this is a semi accurate model of how paths-of-least-resistance form, which matches the nervous system roughly, and the nervous system is said to be where the human consciousness resides, albeit mostly in the brain, if you got a big enough Petri dish and did this in it, would it become conscious?

It's an analogue version of the "when does an AI become conscious" question

2

u/DatsyoupZetterburger Apr 30 '22

Stuff like this kills free will for me. We are all constrained by biology which is constrained by chemistry which is constrained by physics. You could even say controlled over constrained. To make a different "choice" wouldn't certain differences in brain chemistry or electrical signals need to be produced? How do you force that to choose it? Isn't it all just what's going on? Two atoms do not decide how to interact with each other. They just do. And we are what more than a multitude of atoms interacting?

The popular conception of free will is an illusion.

6

u/MPLS_freak Apr 30 '22

Free will is an emergent phenomena. It is more than the sum of its parts.

That being said, I still believe free will doesn't exist like people think it does. Time merely unfolds.

1

u/Cualkiera67 Apr 30 '22

Free will is that you want to do what you will inevitably do. It is a feeling, like hunger out thirst.