hmmm.
https://scitechdaily.com/what-is-life-scientists-propose-new-machine-based-theory-of-life/
A recent study presents a new way to understand
life by describing it as a cascade of machines
producing machines, spanning from molecular to
biosphere levels.
What is life? This question remains the
quintessential puzzle of biological sciences,
encapsulating the intricate complexity and
stunning diversity of life forms. This study
proposes that one viable approach to addressing
this immense complexity is to conceptualize
living matter as a cascade of machines producing
machines.
This cascade illustrates how cells consist of
smaller submachines, extending down to the
atomic level, where molecular machines such as
ion pumps and enzymes operate. In the opposite
direction, it explains how cells self-organize
into larger systems—tissues, organs, and
populations—ultimately culminating in the
biosphere.
...
The study was inspired by the seventeenth-century
polymath Gottfried Leibniz, who noted that “the
machines of nature, that is living bodies, are
still machines in their smallest parts, to
infinity.”
Tlusty and Libchaber constructed a simplified
language that characterizes living matter as an
(almost) infinite, double cascade, spanning
eighteen orders of magnitude in space and thirty
in time.
The large-scale and small-scale branches of this
cascade converge at a critical point of 1,000
seconds and 1 micron, corresponding to the
typical temporal and spatial scales of microbial
life. This paper explains the origins of the
critical point based on fundamental physical and
logical principles, identifying it as the minimum
conditions necessary for a self-reproducing
machine to interface with salty water.
...
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