The Nature of Life

We live in a heady time of rapid discoveries in biochemistry, biophysics and biocybernetics. From the origin of life, to the reproduction of life our insights into the nature of life are growing into useful working knowledge. In light of that, it is all the more amazing that we have not yet agreed upon a fundamental definition of what life is. What is the essential difference
between non-living and living things. It may be totally Terracentric to assume that life as we know it here is the only kind of life possible, and it may be so, however, there may be other kinds of life not based on our chemistry, physics and cybernetics.

I would like to pose the question, if we someday encounter something from somewhere other than Earth, how do we determine whether or not it is alive. It may not have DNA, proteins, or even a carbon base.

I offer a modest proposal to look to Newton's second law of thermodynamics regarding entropy. "Entropy is defined as a measure of unusable energy within a closed or isolated system (the universe for example). As usable energy decreases and unusable energy increases, "entropy" increases. Entropy is also a gauge of randomness or chaos within a closed system. As usable energy is irretrievably lost, disorganization, randomness and chaos increase." from All About Science.

I propose to define life thus; life is the activity of matter which decreases its own entropy by increasing entropy in its environs. This is a small scale definition, in that on a larger scale the average entropy of a volume of space is constant. However, if you consider the mid scale between life and the cosmos, a paradox arises. The large scale surface of entropy is smooth. When life is overlaid the same volume of space, entropy becomes full of holes like swiss cheese.

(~~~ the above painting is "Lifeform" by Ursula Freer ~~~)

The holes are living things. So, if life causes the surface of entropy to have definable features then that is an increase in information, and thus life is decreasing the entropy of space itself. Unless of course, there's some other principle that balances that principle, which is in itself a decrease in entropy. Such an infinite regression is the heart of paradox, so maybe my definition is hugely flawed. I've talked this out with friends and acquaintances over time, and so far, it has held its own as a functioning definition of life.




I'd be very pleased to hear my readers reaction to this idea.