Essays on Life Sciences, with Related Science Fiction Stories

This collection of essays highlights, in a new, critical fashion, some of the classic questions in life science. These include 'what is life?'; 'what is death?'; 'what is consciousness?'; 'why is life cellular?'; and 'why are enzymes macromolecules?'. It also explores whether evolution is pre-determined, whether science and spirituality can harmonize with each other, whether artificial intelligence is at odds with the human spirit, and whether, and to what extent, we are genetically determined. In this text, some of the main conceptual tools used to tackle life's many aspects are necessarily reviewed, such as the systems view of life, the notion of contingency, and the concept of autopoiesis. Each of the three chapters of the book contains a number of short science fiction stories which discuss aspects of the present-day development of artificial intelligence.