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One thing I wanted to say in class but didn't get a chance to is that one important distinction to make when trying to define life is that between life in general and intelligent life. As we are an example of intelligent life, it is sometimes hard for us to differentiate between the thoughts, feelings, and autonomy (all life has autonomy, but not necessarily to the same degree that many animals have) and life. Things without brains are still classified as alive. Another thing we tend to do, as animals ourselves, is, when thinking of life, to think of the more complex forms of life such as animals and plants. I think we haven't talked enough about things like bacteria and microbes, which also are classified as alive.

I believe this also brings up another interesting point. One thing Professor Grobstein brought up in class is that living organisms are highly complex and have an "improbable assembly." However, some forms are more complex than others, therefore, some forms of life are more probable than others. More complex forms are less probable while less complex forms are more probable (right?). I would assume that the life we would be most likely to find elsewhere would be something like bacteria. So at what point is something complex enough to be called life? Or is that question irrelavent because there are so many other factors to defining life?