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What constitutes life? As Mark Taylor points out in Hiding,
"No opposition seems more fundamental than the contrast between living and nonliving.
But are we any longer sure that we know how to define life? Some of the most revolutionary
work now being done in computer science is in the field of artificial life."
(Taylor, Mark C.. Hiding. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997, p. 303.)
One way to define life is by movement. If a baby was born and refused to move, it would die. Why do we call plants living? Because they grow and change. By that definition, giving motion to a text gives it life. Taylor cites Chris Langton, in the field of artificial-life research, when talking about how one defines life. Taylor paraphrases Langton, saying, "Life...is defined as a property of the organization of matter rather than a property of the matter that is organized." (Taylor, Mark C.. Hiding. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997, p. 308.) Therefore, life is not dependent upon skin and bones, blood and tissue, but rather the processes of structure and actions. |
