Life requires energy. But not all energy is life.
Mighty few life forms in the heat of magma.
They always taught me that gamma radiation is inimical to life. Well, not inimical. Navy teaching was more along the lines of 'gamma bad!'
Tarzan and Tonto don't mind it, Mr. Frankenstein. But
I'm just a caveman, your world frightens and confuses me, sometimes the honking horns of your traffic make me want to get out of my BMW.....
You're making the assumption that there is no conscious perception of energy at other scales of existence. Why do you assume something, such as a black hole, or a Proton, does not experience life? We feel, but other forms of matter and energy do not? They react to one another, they build structures (such as us), structures that build other structures. It's all pretty awesome, but you can look at it as a dead universe, and be completely and utterly wrong.
"When matter and energy doesn't create my consciousness out of following specific rules, it is dead, yet when it follows these rules, that give me freedom to explore within the rules, I am alive, while it is still dead". I just don't see it that way- that view is very close minded, like you've some form of autism with respect to all the other forms of life in the universe. Only me! Only that which looks and behaves like me is alive! All the rest of the universe is dead. It's like you're missing out on something great, and it's right there in front of you all the time. Although, I too, am slightly autistic- I like the natural order, I like the steadyness of the universe, the tight slow dance of the stars. I like the repetitive structures, that can be built into greater structures. And I'm fine with them interacting and changing the structures I build. The ancestors are with us, and in us, and it is ignorance to deny their life, which we share with them.
Can you offer examples? I mean, i hate to define things by examples ,but maybe that would help us move towards identifying what you mean.
Well, energy is exchanged by all forms of matter. Ok. Have someone who keeps on talking to me despite me turning away to the computer. Pretty loud. So it's hard to think- which is a good example of the way that energy interacts. Life, in differing forms, can interfere with what other life is doing. Doesn't mean that both forms of energy (which is life) are not living.
I thought one of the key points of most definitions of 'life' is the ability to procreate.
That's a key definition of biological life, that revolves around certain complex interactions of energy (such as the interplay of our thoughts in our various conversations). In fact, it seems to me that energy has found good ways to interact with itself, although there is still a bit to be learned by certain forms of energy- the understanding that reckless overzealous action can result in interference with other forms.
But the laws of thermodynamics would preclude energy from being a life form, because we can only lose energy.
I don't get what you mean? Energy is life, this doesn't mean that it is a specific life form. The fact of the matter is this: energy could be blasting all over like in the BB, but there are also the cool structures that various life forms made of energy can make by more disciplined actions.
I wouldn't worry about energy running out... we're just forming different structures, and our minds need a little bit of pursuit to focus us in the right direction.