The Test of Life

Earth is filled with billions of entities, all of which at one point or another must be classified as biotic or abiotic. Fritjof Capra theorizes in his book "The Web of life, A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems" what criteria an entity must contain to be seen as living or biotic. He states that "A living system has a pattern of autopoiesis throughout which the system is continually self-making or reproducing. A living system has a dissipative structure that continually takes in food for transformation into energy and use in various system construction and maintenance purposes. This mandates the continual elimination of residual matter or wastes. A living system has the ability to sense and respond to its environment in a form of cognition or knowing, which is different than thinking, Cognition requires feedback loops." (Bird, Slide 8) If an entity does not meet all three of these conditions then it is deemed an abiotic entity. Nemobius sylvestris, Avian Influenza A, and Amazon.com, will be put up against this test to see if they are biotic or abiotic.