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timtyler comments on Dissolving the Question of Life - Less Wrong
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FWIW, my preferred version is that life is that which persists via copying.
Like chain letters?
That's correct. Chain letters - and the rest of human culture - is literally alive.
Here is Dawkins (1976) on the topic:
Seems a bit perverse to use a definition that says a chain letter is alive, but a mule isn't. Why not just make up a new term?
Mules are alive. Mule cells reproduce and persist via a copying process. Being sterile does not mean you are not alive, just that you are near the end of the line. Chain letters are alive too - it is unfortunate that few people realise that.
IMO, a new word is not needed: we don't need multiple terms for practically the same basic thing.