9. On artificial life:

Artificial life deals with life as it might have been, and researchers involved in this field aim to create forms of life which are different from “our” life based on DNA and proteins. Up until now these efforts have not been very successful, and it almost appears that there are no forms of life simpler that “our” life. Do you have data to counteract such a (rather negative) statement; and do you accept the notion that alternative forms of life (still within the general category of metabolism + self-reproduction + evolvability) may be possible with different chemical systems??