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  • I value all living things, but I also understand that in order for life to go on things need to die. For example, I eat meat because humans are supposed to eat meat, but I only eat free-range and grass-fed meat because I think that if animals have to die why should they suffer their entire life? I think if everyone just understands costs of actions than we can better understand what has value.

  • your hair seems to be defying gravity...

  • @mthsbandrocks It runs in the family.

  • little mer-hank 1:30! :)

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  • Life - The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter

  • @EDpshycoMAMA62 Not quite. There are several forms of 'organic' matter that we don't deem as 'alive'. Take, for instance, propane (C3H8). It takes amounts of carbon to be formed, and therefore, is organic, but is obviously not alive.

  • Data actualy dos grow, respire and reproduce. he had a child at one point(an adroid he bilt), he breths as part of his cooling sistem(he dosn't need to), and he can grow his hair(he grew a beard at one point).

  • Not going to lie. You sounded a bit like a Bond villan when you said "No they don't matter"

  • Why is Hank always sock-less ?

  • I would totally buy those criteria if they just had one more criterion starting with an E. Then all I'd have to do is remember that life is equivalent to The Katherine or the Yeti.

  • The only thing you've managed to break so far, is my heart

  • I wasn't alive in the 80's and I still know who Johnny 5 is and what Batteries Not Included is. My parents are good people!

  • taking the end out of context is fun

    

  • To the whole thing about killing other life forms, I agree. We are human, if you don't put your or other human life before lives of other species, then you are clearly not thinking human. Evolution has taught us to preserve our own kind. Anyone who says they care more about animals is either stupid or a liar. (Of course you should treat animals correctly though)

  • nope not alive. if it starts wanting things by itself in order to keep it self running, then it would be alive

  • I was eating a corn dog so thought that I just HAD to watch another vlogbrother video.

  • you pronounce Schrödinger wrong... ;)

  • i only clicked only cause the good picture -_-

  • GLaDOS...ending is epic. Also, I agree a hundred percent. My biology teacher is going to hear about this.

  • .....Wait. Did Hank just quote the Little Mermaid? My life is now complete.

  • google doesn't want it simply follows a predetermined list of commands written into its programming.

  • @thetateman25 I agree. For if Google is alive, then robots are alive. And that means the robot apocalypse approaches terrifyingly and quickly. D:

  • @thetateman25 Exactly, google has no 'intention' of its own. There is no qualitative feel for google for what it does.

  • LOL..this was a very interesting video. i like Schrodinger's definition ..it seems like we could apply that broadly..

    and i don't care about the living organisms in my mouth..or the houseflies that i kill..they need to die.

  • Oh the microscopic horror!

  • @Unknownboi88 OH THE HUMANITY!

  • Hah! The jokes on you. I havent bathed or cleaned my teeth in weeks!

  • "A FUNDAMENTAL PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION" SOUNDS FUNNY WHEN HE SAYS IT...

  • After some more thought, I'm willing to accept that Google may be alive, in a symbiotic relationship with humans. We will repair, multiply and evolve it, so long as it shows us LOL-cats. Much like we use the bacteria in our gut, the sun, and the opposite sex to process food, evolve and multiply. At what point will it become conscious? At what point will we give it rights? I suspect that we'll give it rights only when it can fight us and defend itself.

  • I love GLADoS!!!

  • @zubbles2015 GLaDOS!.... sorry.

  • I think your definition of life wanting things is an accurate definition, but it doesn't prove that Google is alive. Google does not want to search for and send back information to continue its existence, but rather because it has been programmed to do so and therefore can't do anything else, just like how my legs will continue to grow hair even though it is not necessary for my existence and I don't particularly want it to.

  • GLaDOS!!

  • Plants react to some sort of pain, humans do, etc. I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this, but this whole things reminded me of MegaGirl from Starship and realizing she loves Tootsie.

  • I had more to this, but I was on an iPod and it was too long- We had a CSEd Week assembly today, and one of the presenters asked if robots could feel and of feeling requires thinking (pain, for example) which sort of relates to this.

  • I used to think I was alive, but after reading some of the super smart intellectual comments I'm not so sure anymore...

  • listerine is a candadian company

  • you see, if you regard a moving organism as alive, then say, a car is alive, when you put gas and electricity into it, it comes to life, its one mucle being it's engin, which powers the car's function, sustaining it's brain, a human being, and humans act as a car's brain by taking it to gas stations, equiping snow tires, so on and so forth

  • We have already succeeded in creating something alive based on those criteria- medical training units (they are expensive$ive) what we are so far unable to make is something sentient. Sentience requires being able to recall information, recognize patterns, create new solutions based upon passed experiences, expand the pattern recognition ability without reprograming (or it's equivalent), and adapt passed experiences to new situations. Until google can do this, it will never be sestina, or fully

  • Entropy increases. Things fall apart. -John Green.

  • As for Data, biologically speaking he's not alive. However, he does have self-awareness, which is the fundamental principle of consciousness, so one may say that he is indeed sentient. I'd like to think so; he's probably one of the most interesting characters out there. I don't think that anyone who watches Star Trek TNG would have any doubt that he is indeed a sentient being. As for Google, if you say that google's alive, wouldn't that mean that any sort of computer program is also alive?

  • As for your definition, I can actually think of a few things that "want" that aren't technically alive; all atoms have a strong chemical "desire" to have a full electron shell, for example. Also, anything with a positive charge usually "wants" to be with its negative counterpart. For example, magnets have positive and negative poles. A magnet would "want" to be attached to another magnet if their positive poles are with their negative poles, and visa-versa. Magnets would repel otherwise.

  • That's odd; we're learning something totally different in school now when it comes to the characteristics of life. Biologically speaking, the characteristics of all living things are:

    -being made of cells

    -obtaining and using energy

    -growth and development

    -reproduction

    -response to stimuli

    -adaptation

    We are specifically taught that movement is not a characteristic of living things. For example, plants do not move unless moved by an outside force (like air).

  • GENICIDE!!!

  • Sometimes I get kind of nauseous in biology class because I realize how loosely connected everything in my "organized" body is. I don't like to think that everything isn't permanently stuck together with glue, even though I know it can't be.

  • To be alive is to have a perspective. We will never know for sure what is and what isn't alive, because we can not see things from their perspective, if they have one.

  • are humans that diferent from machines? build up from cells, we require energy and consume energy on a daily basis, we recharge when we sleep, eat and drink, if we even require maintenence, if we don't we'd just rust appart.

  • I believe all living things have value, but I also know that some need to die for the continuation of the world. For example, I eat meat because humans are supposed to eat meat, but I only eat free-range grass-fed meat because I don't think that animals should be tortured in their lifetime.

  • If google is alive, does that mean it could be gay? (see "Is Lady Gaga a man?")

  • who the hell has been searching "Is the world going to eend in 2012?" Idiots, it ended in July, remember?

  • GLADOS!!!!!!! AHHHHH!!!!!...im satisfied :)

  • Life is sex, sex is life

  • Awesome, 3:07 "is kevjumba a heterosexual bear wrestler?"

  • We learned in my bio class that there are 8 characteristics of life, being:

    1) Has cells

    2) Displays Organization (like tissues and muscles, it can be confusing)

    3) Grows and develops

    4) Reproduces

    5) Responds to stimuli

    6) Adapts

    7) Maintains homeostasis (keeping internal conditions stable) and

    8) Energy

  • @4LiveLifeWithLove4 That would make all sterile people dead.

  • My biology book says the criteria of life are:

    Reproduces

    Has DNA

    Is able to sense and react to change

    Takes outside energy and uses it to sustain itself

    And there was one more but I can't remember it :P

  • my science teacher taught me these:

    Characteristics of a living thing (GRACES)

    Growth and Development

    Reproduction

    Adaptation

    Cells

    Energy

    Stimulus/Response

  • NO WRONG, google lacks the 6 characteristics of life, them being:

    respiration

    movement

    growth

    excretion

    nutrition

    reproduction

  • Little mermaid song?

  • This shockszzbyyous is right. No earthly, physical being can "create" life. All living things, including what people cale paranormal, were made by God. Anythings else, even if sentient, isn't actually alive.

  • @nicholascball81119 isn't reproduction creating life.......

  • can google reproduce?

  • Google isn't alive. Using Hank's definition of being alive as being able to want something, google doesn't want to find information, it is programmed to find information. There's a difference.

  • Google is definately not alive. Life is a gift given by God to his creatures. To say that Google is alive would mean that life can be created by a human being, which is impossible. Google is a compluter, it has no emotions, no wants, no needs. To say that Google is alive is extremely sacreligious and incorrect.

  • I think its pretty clear Johnny Five IS alive.

  • is the sun alive? no

    the thing that is alive is gravity think about it by your definition, gravity wants mass, creating order, and thus the thing that creates gravity is alive. and thus the universe is one big organism of awesomeness ?!?

  • @Shockszzbyyous I think you're thinking of Newton's definition of gravity, which is objects of mass attract each other. But Einstein's Theory of Relativity states that gravity is actually the curvature of space-time.

    But also I don't believe that there is anything that's necessarily creating gravity. Gravity is one of the four fundamental forces of the universe.

    And I'm not sure, but I think that Dark Energy works against gravity to push the universe into expansion.

  • @Shockszzbyyous But is the sun alive, that is the question I find more interesting. The sun is a star, which are born, grow, mature, and die. During its lifetime a star uses thermonuclear fusion to turn Hydrogen into Helium, into Carbon, and if its big enough, so on and so forth, using the Hydrogen as its fuel to survive. When it depletes its store, the star has come to the end of its life, and dies, and is then recycled throughout the universe. But is it "alive"? That is the question here.

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  • @lemonice2700 ye i was kinda saying that the mechanism behind the sun might be alive :)

    I meen the sun is born grows and dies, look at humans they are made of cells the human is alive, and at a smaller lvl the cell is alive, what i wanted say is the smaller level behind the sun ultimately is gravity,

    atleast that's my opinion, might be alive..

  • @Shockszzbyyous Sorry, I didn't mean to post twice.

    Well, here's a question. Are cells alive? They are highly organized, but I don't think I'd say they were alive, since they can't survive on their own such as a bacterium does.

    But I personally would argue that the smaller level behind the Sun isn't gravity, more that ultimately the smaller level of Gravity is the Sun, since Gravity is what pulled the Nebula into a Solar System and the Hydrogen into the Sun and the dust into planets, etc.

  • @Shockszzbyyous But in the end, Gravity still doesn't meet any requirements of life, not even Hank's definition, because it's not mass attracted to mass, it's the curvature of space-time.

  • No Hank! Google is not alive because it does not do these things in and of itself. It requires an outside organism to prompt it, otherwise it would be completely inert. Whereas things that are truly alive seek to acquire energy or "want" from self impulse.

  • PUNISHMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!! PUNISH PUNISH!!!!!!!

  • @riversongftw No, he doesn't get punished because youtube automatically adds one second onto the end of the video. This was decided a while ago

  • I WAS PART OF THAT KEVJUMBA SEARCH WOOO

  • "The only thing you've managed to break so far is my heart."

    Gladys FTW!

  • *robot voice* praise out Google lord..... *normal voice* I mean Google isn't living don't be stupid....

  • I guess he likes the Little Mermaid

  • Dear Hank,

    I seriously just used this video to answer my AP Biology homework. Thanks! And my mom said I was gaining nothing by watching all of your videos..

    Best wishes!

  • you spit it back in the lid.. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.

  • THOUGHT MICROPHONE?! 

  • I killed a spider the other day, and someone was like 'd9on't kill it! It's alive just like you!" I asked them if they brushed they're teeth that morning. :-D

  • Jane?

  • Wrong. So the wind is alive for wanting to get to lower pressure. Electricity and lightning is alive because it wants to be grounded.

  • I think Life (with a capitol L) needs not only to want, but to find new ways to acquire.

    This is where Google's life becomes refutable as it can only acquire information and service through means we have granted it whereas even a virus can become immune to medicine and in turn, finding a slightly new way of reproducing inside living cells.

    The whole Mrs C Gren thing is ridiculous, I agree with only a few of them, the C, S and N (Control, Sensitivity and Nutrition). I will continue --->

  • @MugsM8

    If x does in fact require y to continue life and then finds a way of solving problem a that is stopping it from acquiring y, then it is alive, it has thought. Whether directly or indirectly it has done something new. Google can only do what we have told it to do and can only do it how we have told it to do it.

    Like in the animated movie 9, if we were to create a machine capable of creating machines smarter than itself, then we would have created life.

  • @MugsM8

    Even plants have "learned" to photosynthesise, they (x) have acquired light for nutrition (y) by overcoming the fact that pure light cannot be used as a form of nutrition (a). This is why they are alive.

    They (x) have also acquired the continuation of their species (y) by overcoming death (a) through reproduction with seeds.

    I think it is this which constitutes life.

    Oh and humans have created life, it was some kind of urinary infection bacterium, they made it inside a yeast cell.

  • I laughed so hard at the Little Mermaid reference! I love you so much xD

  • 4:01 PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH PUNISH

  • Over 4 minutes?

  • I belive that is the said thing can make a decision its alive, now obviously there will be some acceptions :)

  • I think it all depends on the perspective to life

    in which you are speaking of. From a biological point of view in the sense that a living thing grows and reproduces ect.

    Though if you are talking about life in a

    Intellectual format saying something that can make decisions and want things on it's own is alive then Google is most definitely alive.

  • Google doesn't want, it is programmed to do.

  • google is not alive, it is told to want by a program by something else(people)

  • @wdig1 But even if it is told to want, isn't it still wanting?

    Now, I don't really think that google is alive, but I think that was just an oversimplified example. The real question comes into being when you look at somthing like GlaDOS (even though she is fictional) IF we were to create a GlaDOS, would that be alive?

  • ARE YOU ALIVE?

  • @WoWashikabi Then again...while they are alive, they are pretty much on the brink of death. And in a semi-coma...

  • @Wowashikabi I suppose you're right...didn't think that out too well.

  • The statement of entropy always increasing is flawed. For example jug of milk + cup of tea. Very ordered, tea and milk separated. Pour milk into tea, disordered as its unevenly distributed. However, the milk will mix evenly, so surely it is now ordered?

  • I feel smart watching these videos because though u talk fast and use big words I understand every second of it

  • I think that pain is sort of the decider. If you can feel pain in any form, emotional, physical, then you're alive. :\

  • @FrogShapedEraser32 Are you saying People in coma are... not alive?

  • Little mermaid. :P lovin u right now.

  • One interesting thought about the entropy thing. The factory that creates toys does indeed decrease entropy, but it doesn't decrease it's OWN entropy. Google could also be described as this, depending on whether you define google purely as the sum of its knowledge or also its "body," as in the physical hardware it runs on. In this way Google cannot decrease its entropy and must rely on humans to do so. The best it could do is detect and alert humans about its entropy, but it cannot decrease it.

  • Nice definition, but how about thing X needs thing Y to live. So thing X wants thing Y and for no logical reason thing Z which is shiny.

  • Those are good questions batteries not included was a much better refrence the GLaDOS(Sorry GLaDOS)

  • personally,(just my 15 year old brains view) i count anything with a mind of it's own as being alive, so nothing that was computer programmed :) also your awesome ^_^ (i find people who don't think and just let them self be controlled as not really living also )

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  • Hello Hank. I have a correction for you (i believe). Its just something that struck me and is bugging me. If im correct and i feel pretty correct....Entropy has a limit. The limit would be: once the universe and everything that "is" reaches equilibrium entropy will no longer be. Thus entropy is not infinite. So it will not, "forever increase". It would be nice if someone replied to this to make sure if my logic is making sense..

  • Man.

    I started singing the song from TLM right before you did >>

  • How dare you!!!! You have slaughtered BILLIONS of innocent germs Hank!!! They were just trying to live a happy and productive life inside of your mouth, and you SLAUGHTERED THEM ALL!!!!!! Germocidial Manic....

  • @hardcorehunter1, PUNCHES! Although, could you punch in the stomach? Yeah I don't really care what you say (sorry if that sounded mean... It was supposed to be in a relaxed tone). Everybody has beliefs right? Some people believe that only things made by God are alive. Some people believe that "Google is alive." Some people believe that only things made of cells or have an artificial intelligence are alive. I sort of messed up typing it (I mean to say "here is my way" not here is a way.)

  • but if google is alive.... oh my god! I have a friend!

  • 0:42 FTW haha 

  • I reckon the definition has something to do with inputs and outputs...

  • @vlogbrothers Hi Hank. I just a really interesting new show on Science channel called "Through the Wormhole" with Morgan Freeman (cutting edge science embarks on a mission to extend human life) It's really interesting, but about half way through they start discussing this very topic (what I think you might find relevant) What systems need in order to survive and one man made what looks like an 8bit 2d program to show smallest cell system of life. also: cellular DNA programming etc. :)

  • they do stop wanting. clinical depression can make you totally without hopes or asperations, wanting nothing. generally in that state i dont feel particularly alive. i'll try note if they always coincide (im bipolar).

  • Okay, here is a way to subdivide the word Life: Life=Natural life and Unnatural life.

    Natural life=Organisms. Unnatural or artificial life=Androids and robots (You can't count AI in a video game because that would be saying the video game is alive, which it isn't.) What I believe is this: if the organism can think and control itself without being piloted, it is alive.

  • @OcDrOk an interesting paradigm. but are you willing to present some form of evidence to support it or should you be punched in the face for being lame?

  • If you (like me) spent almost the entire video trying to read Hank's shirt, let me save you some time.

    DFTBA a. don't forget that brains attract b. darling, fetch the battle axe c. don't forget to be awesome d. dinosaurs failed to beat asteriod

    Now, fellow nerdfighters, which is correct? :)

  • Who cares if it is alive? What is important is if it is sentient.

  • You totally forgot about Short Circuit, PLEASE tell me you've seen that movie.

    Also, random, but why do Hank's videos take longer to load than John's videos?

  • @NotoriousNoelle um, he said Johnny Five...

  • @JustinCarroll928 ha, he totally did. i missed that the first time, thanks for pointing it out. :-)

  • Your shirt is awesome!!!!! Does anyone know where I can get one? If someone could let me know in a message or something, that would be great.

    DFTBA! GO NERDFIGHTERS!

  • Am I the only one whose mind jumped to Darren at the Disney reference? No?

    He owns my brain. :( No. It's awesome having DC live in your head.

  • When you're dead you're stinky. Heard it here first, people.

  • GLaDOS is not just alive, she's still alive

  • I reject the idea that software can be called alive since that increases the moral burden on me as a software engineer.

  • Zombies want human flesh. They're UNDEAD. Not ALIVE.

  • @Ookami1123 But ,they don't actively decrease their own entropy.

    ....And to be "undead" is to be "alive" as to be "uninteresting" is to be "boring" (in a simplistic definitions way).

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  • Viruses are zombies. They're alive, but at the same time, they're...not. I mean, they move and attack and stuff, but they're not...LIVING...

  • god im hungry

  • was I the only one that noticed that this video is 4.01 long?

  • you quoted the little mermaid :)

  • Google doesn't want anything. Google is programmed to respond to specific stimuli. It really i just that simple

  • To say that Google "wants" to retrieve information seems to me like saying a hammer "wants" to hit a nail or a car "wants" to travel to a specific destination. I think these things are simply agents of our own wants.

  • so why are we witnessing our thoughts as if we were real, would an AI feel real pain like we do? what allows us to experience our feelings...wait gah my mind hurts

  • GLaDOS!!!!

  • Thumbs up for No Batteries Included!

  • Isn't google more PROGRAMMED to do what it does?

  • need does not equal want and vice versa

  • 8 glasses push-ups and 1 nose rub. Have I told you lately how awesome you are? No really, have I because I'm experiencing some memory loss after my last OS upgrade.

  • Schrodinger's cat ^^

  • little mermaid reference :)

  • What do plants want?

  • @manoorc02 But plenty of categorically 'alive' organisms are dependent on other beings for all of their primary needs. For instance, using your definition only autotrophs would be living as they are the only ones capable of synthesizing their own food. And what about things like parasites; beings as dependent on their hosts as google is on humans.

  • Alive? No, but vocoders are? At least the human part doing the mic input is.

  • so, "I think, therefore I am"?

  • I belive that Google will be alive the moment it will be self aware and capable to evolve without any help and not been forced to answer to any human source.

  • This is nothing to do with Life but in turn a question that a friend gave me;

    Madness - in essence - is an absence of normality. Each of us have different norms and values. What I think and do as normal, someone else could think abnormal. Therefore, each person around us carries an absence of normality due to their differentiated norms. So does madness exist? And if it does, what exactly is it?

  • People think too much. Life is life, but not all is equal.

    Sure, Goggle can be alive, but I'm not afraid of "hurting" it. Which is the same as bacteria.

  • Is that GLaDOS I hear?

  • I do respect every living organism. That doesn't mean I never kill any of them.

  • Hmm. I've been thinking about this. Will = life. Maybe.

  • MURDER.

  • Well technically i guess a negative feedback loop "wants" to correct any negative feedback it receives, so that could constitute life. But then again an auto firing turret is a negative feedback loop and they're not particularly alive unless they say "i'm different"

  • I CAN HEAR THEIR LITTLE SCEAMS

  • But then in retrospect, everything could or could not be considered alive. Example: is your alarm clock alive? It wants to wake you up and organizes times for which to do so, so I vote, it that sense... yes. BTW that would mean that technology is in fact trying to take over our lives and is full aware of its ambition to do so, which is ironic because I fear and love technology at the same time!

    French the llama I just drifted off topic three times in one sentence!

  • God my head hurts.

  • its not if they have value

    its if they have value to you

    its like you can eat dog

    but you dont

    because it has high personal value

    thus increasing the value of all dogs

    but you would eat cow

  • thumbs up for the slight drizzle of mouthwash on your chin...it's quite alluring! :P I enjoyed the point you made.

  • Well, the wanting definition relates to Nietzche's Will To Power concept but I think Schodinger has a more broad answer, that better suits modern times. Because we largely don't question wether we're alive or not but if machines and other organisms are. So yeah, the never-ending battle against entropy seems like a good answer. Also, good name for an album or presumptuous poetry book.

  • Your videos always confuse me... I liked the Ariel quote though ^^

    And, google is probably alive and will at one time turn into a gigant robot to take over the world even more than it already has.