Elucidating Questions

If what makes me alive is my consciousness

Then other animals aren’t alive

If what makes me alive are a brain and heart

Then single cell organisms aren’t alive

If what makes me alive is my pain

Then anything that can’t feel pain isn’t alive

But we know none of this is true

A cell is alive

Other animals are alive

A plant is alive (though whether or not they feel pain is up for debate)

So what is it?

It’s not the blood in my veins or my heart or my brains

It’s not my feeling, my experiencing, my life itself is not what makes me alive

Why?

Is it a what? A who? Is it something we knew?

A god? A spark? It’s not the beating of a heart

What makes us…

Is it mitochondria?

Is the answer to life mitochondria?