Dear Readers,
In our last issue, we wrote that we would talk about aliens. Before we get into this topic, I will briefly discuss the definition and classification of living things. Scientifically, anything that can spontaneously perform certain chemical reactions, form its own building blocks through these reactions, reproduce, be aware of the conditions it is in and react to them, and most importantly, anything that needs energy to do all these things is defined as "living".
In Aristotle's time, the classification of living things was divided into two groups: "plants" and "animals". Later, when single-celled organisms such as bacteria were discovered and it was realised that they showed neither plant nor animal characteristics, the group of "single-celled organisms" emerged as the third group.
Apart from these, some primitive features belonging to living organisms have been observed in the carbon atom. The carbon atom is not the only exception. Salt and water crystals are also capable of this. An example is the marvellous freezing of water molecules that are spoken good words before freezing, and the chaotic freezing of those spoken bad words. However, the three basic distinguishing characteristics of living things are generally and simply recognised as feeding, reproduction and being aware of what is going on around them. However, as discoveries and inventions increase, it is certain that the definition of living things will change. For example, I think that future developments in robot technology will be reflected in the definition of living beings in order to emphasise that robots are not living beings.
Alien, on the other hand, is the name given to creatures that are assumed to live in space. Of course, it is not necessary for aliens to lead a life in accordance with the definition of living beings we have just made. No one can guarantee that there will not be undiscovered life forms in the universe that science does not yet have information about. If we do not object that space is infinite, we must also believe that we are not the only owners of space. So, where are they; why can't we see them? Could the answer be related to volume, density, speed? Aliens depicted in science fiction films are based on the thesis that they will resemble humans. In the depictions, aliens have a visible volume; they have a head, arms and legs. From this point of view, we imagine aliens with a body. We do not think about whether they are small creatures at the micro level, and we ignore the possibility that aliens are creatures too small to be seen by the eye.
However, we cannot say that there are millions or even billions of aliens in the environment you are in right now, which cannot be comprehended with the limited possibilities of technology. For example, I think that future developments in robot technology will be reflected in the definition of living beings in order to emphasise that robots are not living beings. Alien, on the other hand, is the name given to creatures that are assumed to live in space. Of course, it is not necessary for aliens to lead a life in accordance with the definition of living beings we have just made. No one can guarantee that there will not be undiscovered life forms in the universe that science does not yet have information about. If we do not object that space is infinite, we must also believe that we are not the only owners of space. So, where are they; why can't we see them? Could the answer be related to volume, density, speed? Aliens depicted in science fiction films are based on the thesis that they will resemble humans. In the depictions, aliens have a visible volume; they have a head, arms and legs. From this point of view, we imagine aliens with a body.
We do not think about whether they are small creatures at the micro level, and we ignore the possibility that aliens are creatures too small to be seen by the eye. However, we cannot say that there are millions or even billions of aliens in the environment you are in right now, which cannot be comprehended with the limited possibilities of technology.