Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath surface, mission finds

Re:Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath s... by Razengan on Monday August 10, 2020 @11:59PM (#24117035)

"Life" could also be AI machines.

If we seeded a planet with sufficiently advanced robots, that can mine and build and learn and make copies of themselves on their own, and a few centuries later they have a civilization, does it matter what they're made of?

For all intents and purposes, it would be life.

Perhaps at some point we should/will have to stop saying "life" at some point and use terms like "agent" instead, to include disembodied intelligences shaping the universe through their decisions and stuff like that. :)

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Re:Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath s... by fsloth on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @01:27AM (#24117416)

I don't think you should confuse life and agency. I fail to see how a bacteria would have any agency.

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Re:Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath s... by bryanrasmussen on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @01:57AM (#24117544)

Well then if you found a place with bacteria but nothing advanced you would put in your captain's log that "the fundamental requirements for agency to arise were found, but as yet agency had not been achieved" or some such phrasing.

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Re:Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath s... by ajuc on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @02:04AM (#24117578)

> I fail to see how a bacteria would have any agency.

It does stuff on its own. That's agency.

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Re:Planet Ceres is an 'ocean world' with sea water beneath s... by Razengan on Tuesday August 11, 2020 @01:34AM (#24117455)

> I fail to see how a bacteria would have any agency.

Why would it not?

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