How about defining it as an instance of functional complexity? And treating the list of properties as following necessarily from this definition?
Okay, this is very diamond-in-the-rough (or perhaps zirconium...) but here goes my thoughts on the matter:
(Complexity) Many diverse parts
(functional) acting for the sake of the whole
I think I need to add something like "not as the instrument of another" or something like that.
Given that they act together as one whole and given entropy, etc., the organism will need to posses more order than its surroundings (homeostasis). It will therefore need to take in energy (nutrition), which it will use to sustain its readiness to interact with its environment so as to preserve its own being (homeostasis again?), but which will eventually break down (death), so that in order for that life form to continue it will need to duplicate itself (reproduction), which, upon occurring, will involve both development (growth) to maturity and ongoing maintenance (homeostasis again).
Oh well, it's worth thinking about more: that's a sure thing.
Okay, this is very diamond-in-the-rough (or perhaps zirconium...) but here goes my thoughts on the matter:
(Complexity) Many diverse parts
(functional) acting for the sake of the whole
I think I need to add something like "not as the instrument of another" or something like that.
Given that they act together as one whole and given entropy, etc., the organism will need to posses more order than its surroundings (homeostasis). It will therefore need to take in energy (nutrition), which it will use to sustain its readiness to interact with its environment so as to preserve its own being (homeostasis again?), but which will eventually break down (death), so that in order for that life form to continue it will need to duplicate itself (reproduction), which, upon occurring, will involve both development (growth) to maturity and ongoing maintenance (homeostasis again).
Oh well, it's worth thinking about more: that's a sure thing.
Comments
As you point out - self-replication is essential.ience
In any case, could you tell me more about the star thing? It's probably very obvious but let's think about it...
I think what you said about homeostasis is equivalent to the entropy definition.
Answer: something that can interact with its environment without losing its identity.
Being able to do so in a world in which the laws of thermodynamics are such as they are requires a special kind of homeostasis--the kind that would be disequilibrium if it weren't a living thing. And to achieve this homeostasis, one requires nourishment. And since things break down and die, only those life forms that reproduce will endure. But reproduction and nourishment both involve types of growth. There, I think I've got it: a definition from which one can infer life's properties. Yeehawww! i-R-smart---yessirreeee!
Don't stars interact only with themselves? (apart from gravity)
Don't they act non-adaptively?
I'm not used to thinking about stars, so your help is greatly appreciated.