What is Life

The traditional formulation and scope of physical laws fails to adequately describe complex biological systems. Describing life in terms of the laws of matter and forces is insufficient to capture its complexity or emergent properties. Life can be defined in biological terms by a number of processes and states including adaptation, reproduction, metabolism and evolution. Cell-based components and combinations are linked in multi-dimensional networks to create a living organism, each link defining a critical relationship. The complexity of these networks combined with a dynamic evolving process driven by the need to survive marks a key difference between animate and inanimate phenomena.

The network decision-based theory of evolution as defined in the author's book- The Future of Life: Meta-Evolution, postulates that adaptive living systems are capable of utilising and processing information by storing, monitoring and transforming it. Information is stored and processed in the neural network structures of the brain and nervous system, the DNA, RNA and protein structures of the cell as well as the myriad other chemical, sensory, signalling and metabolic feedback loops that allow life to function within a complex environment.

By transforming information, life evolves towards greater complexity. The more complex life becomes, the better it’s able to learn, adapt and continue its trajectory in the universe.