Philosophical approach.

I like those 7 rules to live by that were mentioned in the last post, they are very interesting and in a way.... should I say enlightening.  I read a book by a Tibetan Rinpoche that stated that all sentient beings are doing the best they can to be happy, that the bee does not sting you out of malice but out of an inherent need to lead a joyful and fulfilling life.  It seems that W.D. Ross has a similar saying with those 7 rules of living.  I was reading on the NASA website the other day and was blown away by the discovery of a group of bacteria that utilizes arsenic instead of phosphorus.  In the rules you mentioned beings should not strive to do harm, not verbatim, but a life form that utilizes arsenic to me would do nothing but create harm to any phosphorus using life form.  It is kind of interesting to think about the ramifications both morally and scientifically that the discovery of this bacteria creates. 

Ar sonic is dangerous to us because chemically it is very similar to phosphorus.  So when we come in contact with it our phosphorus receptors get blocked and synthesis of DNA is unable to commence.  Organic compounds though based in carbon are not supposed to have the ability to bond with arsenic and maintain function but this mutation of bacterium has created a new chain in the animal kingdom.  If Darwin's theory is correct the evolution of this bacterium could lead to an entirely new form of life never before encountered.  The question is, if a form of life that carries one of the most toxic elements in its physical being were to adapt and evolve to a sentient being, would the search of joy from that being create harm and sorrow for the rest of the populations of the world?  What if in the future with the SETI program we discover a race of beings in the universe that share this arsenic chained trait but were capable of intelligent thought, would we see the very first interstellar war of the worlds?  I have major respect for those scientists in the astrobiology department of NASA for having the courage to find new ways to define life and what it means to be alive without reducing themselves to synthetic biology like so many other researchers around the world.



 Image of GFAJ-1 grown on arsenic.
Image Credit: Jodi Switzer Blum