82 Can Science Explain Life? 



tary forces or with the combined or average ef- 

 fects of large numbers of atoms or molecules. 

 There is no artificial device known which will 

 respond to the specific behaviors of the individual 

 atoms or other elementary particles of matter, 

 and we cannot extend the laws of physics and 

 chemistry by analogy into realms where condi- 

 tions are not the same as those under which such 

 laws were derived. It is only through the medium 

 of living matter that the behaviors of the indi- 

 vidual atoms can manifest themselves. In chem- 

 ically organized structures of this sort some of 

 the atoms may occupy positions of advantage so 

 that their specific individual behaviors may be- 

 come amplified sufficiently to effect the excitation 

 of nerve or protoplasmic fibers, and it is this 

 amplification of the activities of individual atoms 

 which establishes the condition of self-conscious- 

 ness. Artificial devices can never possess self- 

 consciousness because their behaviors are always 

 completely predetermined by the principles of 

 geometry and statistical mechanics which form 

 the basis of all the laws of physics and chemistry. 

 The behaviors of the individual atoms, however, 

 are not subject to the principles of statistical 

 mechanics, and the effects of geometric relation- 

 ships are being continually obliterated by the con- 



