Stephen Downes

This is a good article, I'll grant it that. I resist its main thesis; ultimately the argument is not successful. But it's worth state here. The thesis - as suggested by the title - is that life is inherently different from non-life. "Organisms are more than just machines, and minds are more than just computers." The main argument, which Adam Frank draws from Hans Jonas, is that "living systems are not stable collections of atoms like a rock. Instead, they are stable patterns that persist through time... a specific kind of organization through which matter and energy pass." And because life is a type of organization, and not reducible to matter and energy, it has special needs, for example, "interiority and individuality." Also, "every organism must actively maintain itself against the continuous threat of its own dissolution" and "life always has purpose." There is additionally the argument from Robert Rosen that "metabolic systems could be viewed as a special kind of organization where networks of processes close back on themselves" and hence "not Turing computable."