The "Hard Problem" of Life
Sara Imari Walker, Paul C. W. Davies
arXiv Preprint Archive June 23, 2016 preprint
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Q-bio.ot Information theory Biophysics Theoretical biology Emergence |
| Key points | Proposes that the problem of information as a causal agent is a "hard problem of life" that may ultimately require new physical principles to resolve. |
Abstract
Chalmer's famously identified pinpointing an explanation for our subjective experience as the "hard problem of consciousness". He argued that subjective experience constitutes a "hard problem" in the sense that its explanation will ultimately require new physical laws or principles. Here, we propose a corresponding "hard problem of life" as the problem of how `information' can affect the world. In this essay we motivate both why the problem of information as a causal agent is central to explaining life, and why it is hard - that is, why we suspect that a full resolution of the hard problem of life will, similar to as has been proposed for the hard problem of consciousness, ultimately not be reducible to known physical principles.
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