Recently, the distinction between living and non-living things has come under attack with the invention of so-called "artificial life", which can be defined as an attempt to re-create the basic principles governing living systems, within a computational medium (Digital Life Lab at CalTech, 2002). What were formerly thought to be the defining features of living things can be mimicked by abstract computational systems (Wolfram, 2002, pp. 824 - 825).
The confusion over the life versus non-life distinction invites several responses. Why does it matter anyway? If it does matter, can a fundamental distinction be made? (In other words, what are the sufficient and necessary conditions for something's being alive?) Why does the distinction matter ethically? These are the questions that will be addressed in this chapter.
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