[mtqwerty]

In my mind, alive is a binary term. Something is alive or it is not. We don't say something is more alive than something else.

Rocks, road signs and tables are not alive. Humans, pigs and fungi are alive. That is a useful distinction but it disregards differences in the latter group.

Fungi are reacting to stimuli with more complex behaviors than a single-celled organism can. We can't say fungi are more alive than the single celled organisms, so what are they?

Where does one draw the line with intelligence? In your opinion, what organisms can appropriately be considered intelligent?

[thaumasiotes]

> Something is alive or it is not. We don't say something is more alive than something else.

Yes we do. There's a whole continuum from prions through viruses to cells.

[mtqwerty]

I didn't think my education would be out of date so quickly. You're absolutely right. I was taught prions/viruses were in the gray area between alive and dead but alive is clearly just a spectrum.

Thank you for not ending your comment with "read up".

[colechristensen]

> In my mind, alive is a binary term.

Thought experiment: could you rigorously define and determine the nanosecond in which life begins and ends for a mammal?

How about a nanometer precise surface boundary between a single living organism and its nonliving environment?

[mtqwerty]

Thank you for responding to my incorrect take constructively. These were both good thought experiments and I concede, alive is definitely not a binary concept.

In your opinion, what organisms are intelligent?

[billiam]

Are viruses alive? What about prions? Self-replicating clay molecules? Read up.

[Jweb_Guru]

That's pedantry, the point is that both free-living bacteria and fungi are very firmly on the "alive" side of that gray area.

[mtqwerty]

If you hadn't said read up at the end of this, it would've been a helpful comment.

You clearly have read up based on your other posts but being a jerk to people who aren't as read up as you won't make you any happier.