Sara Walker and the Writer Discuss Life's Definition
In the realm of scientific exploration, our understanding of life has traditionally been a topic of intense debate, with two main schools of thought: materialism and vitalism. However, a new framework is emerging that challenges these traditional perspectives, viewing life as a process rather than a fixed property of individual organisms.
This new approach emphasises life as a process characterised by time, self-reference, and self-modification. It sees living systems not as static entities but as dynamic, active systems that continuously change and maintain themselves through interaction with time and their environment.
This shift in perspective is supported by recent theoretical work that integrates natural time (the flowing, irreversible time lived by organisms) with representational time (a symbolic or measured time that emerges with life). It highlights the importance of self-reference, where living systems modify themselves by referencing their own states, enabling adaptation and evolution. Furthermore, it recognises that living systems are open, self-modifying systems that continuously reorganise and sustain themselves amid change.
Classical views of life as a property belonging to organisms as discrete entities are contrasted with this new framework, which frames life as a processual and relational phenomenon, spanning from cellular to social levels.
Computational approaches to biology further reinforce this idea, treating development and organisation as emergent processes governed by networks of interactions and rules learned from cellular behaviours.
The vitalists, who have long noticed something magical about life that can't be easily dismissed, and the materialists, who believe life can be reduced to physical matter and mechanics, may find common ground in this new framework. It suggests that our conception of matter may be too limited for a full understanding of life, and that the focus on individual living things misses the larger pattern of life.
In summary, this new framework for understanding life views it as an evolving, time-dependent process grounded in the interplay of self-reference, adaptation, and continuous change. It fundamentally shifts from organism-centered definitions to system- and process-centered perspectives. This paradigm shift promises to open new avenues for understanding the complexities of life, from the microscopic to the cosmic.
