Dead

I was preparing for NTS interviews once. Sometimes back them , I came across this question. What is the difference between living and non-living? Many speculations were made in our group, like, living things grow, reproduce, eat, think, have mind.. blah blah blah. But then too the questions remained. Cars or Bikes also 'eat' in a way. They consume fuel and perform work. regarding grow and reproduce, how about some automated plants today that create cars without human intervention. About think or have mind, AI is emerging really quickly these days. I am sure it is not the exact kind of intelligence that human mind has. But it has its own benefits, like accuracy or speed. Even our mind has all such linked memories, and memory mappings and all that, which are becoming part of computers these days. But the mentioned things are called 'non-living'. But, we humans call ourselves 'alive' or 'self-motivated'... So, what's the difference.

One of my friend's mother was a physician. She told us one good bookish definition of 'alive'. "One who has death is alive"...... WHOAA... now that makes sense. I never saw any of the non-living things die before. Sure they get repaired and rusted and outdated, but they don't die. So, why 'living' things are the only ones that die? To understand this, I looked closely at the definition of 'death'. Its a kind of irreversible process. Once you are dead, you can't come back. Well, we can repair a computer, a plant, or any engine these days, why not human bodies? Well, that answer came to me from a joke :
"

Mechanic : You are a famous heart surgeon and I am fixing your car's engine. Tell me what's difference between you and me. My engine also needs good care, it pumps power and also fails some times. Then why are you so important and not me?

Surgeon : Try and repair engine while its running and we'll talk about it.

"

Well, the process of body can't be stopped. Cyanide kills our brain for a moment. But that it enough to shut it down permanently. Because, once stopped, these things can't be started. Perhaps it's due to some limitations while making the body so complex. So, many things can be called alive in the same analogy. Like a painting, which after getting ruined by water, not possible to regenerate. But I am sure that a genuine artist can make a replica. Or an engine, which won't work exactly as before after opening it. (Believe me, I have tried it... My friends are still blaming me for their engine failure for a competition :P ) But I am sure that some expert mechanic would be able to correct it.

So, in a way, we just say that things that are so complex that thy can't be reverted are 'alive'. Something that we can't control. Because when we say we control stuff, one part of it is making process reversible. So that you can get back to what it was. So, more control you have, more you get close to making things reversible. In a way, you are making yourself more GODish.

I hope one day will come when this death process will be reversible too. (Just like flying, or automating or curing diseases)

But then, will it mean that we'll be 'non-living'? Think about it.