This is similar to a previous HN thread [1] about a post about paper called the "information theory of individuality" [2] that talked about life as the ability

This is similar to a previous HN thread [1] about a post about paper called the "information theory of individuality" [2] that talked about life as the ability to "cohere information forward in time." There is another related idea I stumbled on called the "constructal law," [3] which seems related. Where I think they are related to the question of what life can be defined as is that you could express this constructal force in terms of that information theory idea by summarizing it with a slight extension - as a bounded system is living based on its ability to dynamically cohere information forward in time. The limits of this constructal theory will be defined in using information theory terms. When we discover stuff in the universe and ask, "is/was this life?" there might be some criteria in these ideas in terms of asking, does this thing take feedback from its environment and produce coherent information? Or, is this thing a source of neg-entropy in its environment? If we look at life as a temporary, dynamic whorl of neg-entropy, it might yield some useful criteria. Half-baked, but measuring information-in, information-out could tell us whether something other than classical physics is processing it. It suggests we could figure out whether something was created by life as well, since the internet is not "alive," but it is evidence of life. Sorting things based on whether it is evidence of life, seems testable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22825048 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22825048 [2] https://alexdanco.com/2020/04/09/life-is-made-of-unfair-coin-flips/ https://alexdanco.com/2020/04/09/life-is-made-of-unfair-coin... [3] https://mems.duke.edu/research/energy/bejan-constructal-law https://mems.duke.edu/research/energy/bejan-constructal-law