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TRANSITION. "The emergence of life was probably marked by a transition in information processing capabilities." http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/79/20120869.short View in LinkedIn

CATEGORY #2. LIFE AS FOOD. "All other organisms must make use of food that comes from other organisms in the form of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. These organisms which feed on others are called heterotrophs." They include herbivores, carnivores, fungi, and many microorganisms. http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/biology/autotroph.html View in LinkedIn

GOING DIGITAL. "Life forms that ‘go digital’ may be the only systems that survive in the long-run and are thus the only remaining product of the processes that led to life." http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/79/20120869.short View in LinkedIn

CATEGORY #1. PHOTONS AS FOOD. "Autotrophs are those organisms that are able to make energy-containing organic molecules from inorganic raw material by using basic energy sources such as sunlight. Plants are the prime example of autotrophs, using photosynthesis." http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/biology/autotroph.html View in LinkedIn

ANALOG LIMITATIONS. "Purely analogue life forms could have existed in the past but are not likely to survive over geological timescales without acquiring explicitly digitized informational protocols." http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/79/20120869.short View in LinkedIn

SOLAR POWERED LIFE. "The food chain in the forest begins with the sun's energy, arriving fresh from its 93,000,000 mile, eight minute journey across the Solar System." The only (perplexing) exception is the life converting chemicals into complex matter in lightless deep sea vents. https://lnkd.in/dEw_p5h View in LinkedIn

CAUSAL EFFICACY. "We have presented a framework for understanding the origin of life as a transition in causal structure, and information management and control, whereby information gains causal efficacy over the matter it is instantiated in." http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/10/79/20120869.short View in LinkedIn

TWO BIG CATEGORIES OF ORGANISM. "Organisms are divided into autotrophs and heterotrophs according to their energy pathways." https://lnkd.in/dGm8C5j View in LinkedIn

LATERAL GENE TRANSFER has been a promiscuous and widespread phenomena in living things, driven by ancient virus fragments. These mobile genetic elements are enormous sources of genetic diversity, and have demonstrably taken over the regulation of many organisms as well as driving evolution itself. All by creatures who are the ghosts in the machine, who do not eat, only reproduce. The little automatons behind the wheel. View in LinkedIn

INCREASING PLANETARY BIOINFORMATION. Arguably, all living creatures are designed first and foremost to generate ever more sophisticated biological information in the form of genes. All other activities of organisms are congruent with this primary goal. How creatures obtain their energy is insignificant when contrasted to this all-encompassing goal. View in LinkedIn