Every time we speak I gain a sense of belonging. Our bond, like that of a simple atom, is unbreakable A love that isn’t shared by any other pair. My joy remains palpable, my feelings still pure. I love you my dearest, of that I am sure.

——-

My professor asked us what defines something as “living”. Scientists and thinkers have all tinkered with reproduction, boundaries, reaction, and metabolism, but can these simple functions (that are shared through inanimate objects) agree to such a complex idea?

I sit here contemplating - perhaps simply avoiding the work assigned to the same subject - this very question and hoping that my current enlightened state brings about a better perspective. So here, my direct thought process in its entirety.

-Warning, to those that dislike my brain function… read at your own risk. -

—Begin—
What is LIFE?
humanity- alive? Yes. What makes up a human being. What defines a human? Atoms, molecules normal building blocks of existence in this plane of reality. Rule 1, existence in this plane of reality. Is this to say that life doesn’t exist in parallel - or adjacent - realities? False - revise. Existing according to laws of current dimensional plane. Write rule at bottom revise as needed. Continue:

After existence what else decides life? What else do humans do?
Think, no many lower forms don’t even have neural systems.
Act, no as well, some species of life do not react entirely to stimuli, this also says that dying mutations may not be life either - which is simply ignorant.
Death - possible, but this excludes a beings ability to reach beyond adaptation of surviving an environment to adapting to survive itself - thus anti life. Death is only an obstacle, not a variable.
Adapt - no as well simply because of non adapting mutations.
mutate - no lack of reproduction is still life.
evolve - excludes the ability to reach perfection. Though perfection is unattainable by human standards, it must be available as a possibility.
growth no to simple.
exist - Fight to exist (lack of stimulus)… Move… Motion… Purpose… combining with ones environment as a whole… Being a part of the larger organism around itself (singular organisms with out stimuli are still alive)… purpose- most things are useless in the grand scheme. connection - alone is still alive. emotion - no. vision no. feeling no. Existing on a plane of existence, rocks do this, they are not alive. Compare life to a rock as perfect example. What can life do that a rock cannot. Move autonomously… no some life may not move nor react. made of complex parts that work together towards… existence. IF a machine were put together so that it could work towards being its individual parts is it alive? I suppose. Do you suppose or are you sure? I dont know. Think. Pause…

Yes. IF it exists and is made of far simpler parts for the purpose of remaining existence on any plane. It lives. IS this a separate rule. No, all one rule. To make more simply makes more holes. Revise and return. With this said, does a dimensional plane as a whole work to exist on its own. Does it not contain rules that keep it from being another plane and therefore work (in the physical term not the mental) towards existence as an individual? Yes. So existence itself could be life? Yes. Does a flame count as life? No, because it doesn’t work to exist and at some point will cease to exist for it is only a transfer of energy. However this transfer of heat into the air from the string or any other object, balancing and “metabolizing” existence as a whole can be said to be life. So fire can be considered a part of a greater life, just as life is a greater life.

Physics is to the universe as blood flow is to human kind. Energy changes are to the universe as oxygen use is to earth life. parts are to living machines as cells are to living organics. Organics and machines… life are to the system that is the universe (life) as cells are to humans.

life is to life as life is to life.

Even more simply put, life is life. Though a ass backward answer, it is true. Life is only defined BY life and therefore indefinite. But as a term life must be what can be life. Can a rock be life? IFF that rock is in contribution to life as a whole. If something participates in the universe it is life. Then is there non-life. YES at several instances of time. Life doesn’t come from non-life. Life is ACTIVE non-life. Just as the english language states that you can bring life to a room or life to an electronic device - acting upon the universe in even the most minute or insignificant way makes you living.

In the long term a human being and its understanding of time may seem more significant than a rock, but it is indeed not significant in the least. its atoms are only consisting life for the mere 100 years they are in motion. those atoms are not alive, but as a whole, they are contributing to existence. That rock is not alive, but later its atoms may assist in life. Or perhaps they will smash into a planet and provide motion to create other forms of organics in which case its force will be life for that infinite second.

Just as time is relative, life is relative. It isn’t that life only exists from a perspective, it’s that it exists for time frames in the eyes of the beholder. Revise.

Rule 1: Any group of non-living parts, in ‘motion’ towards existing, according to the laws of the current dimensional plane - this does not exclude beings that can exist on multiple planes. Life is Action/REAction - Purpose, thought, or atomic make up do not effect this. Life is a temporary state of matter.