Life does not exist.
It is just that certain configurations of matter
Disclose something inherently present in it
That other configurations conceal.
Consciousness likewise does not exist.
It just manifests in certain arrangements
Of the building blocks of existence.
Consider a seed planted in the ground
It makes “life” out of the minerals of soil
Nothing is added
Just “information” and “form”
To shape a configuration
That we experience as living.
But nothing has changed
Or been added.
Is life a relatively unstable arrangement of matter?
So if a certain “homeostatic” environment
Is not maintained
From within or without
It collapses
Back into what is considered non-life.
So what is the difference
Between a dead seed and a live seed?
One has the possibility of organising matter
Into life.
And one just “destructures”
To become non-life matter.
Is a virus life?
Can you make a woolly mammoth from the icebound remains of a long-dead creature?
In a similar way
A mountain
Or a river
The sea
Or the wind
Disclose sides of matter
That other configurations do not.
Maybe Mars is fabulously beautiful
And alive with “life”
Rich beyond our imagination?
We just don’t have the biological structure
To experience it.
And if a Martain came to earth
Maybe they would discover a barren lifeless planet?
Are we like the deaf man who goes looking for a beautiful melody?