Definition of life

[James C. Harrison]

Without suggesting a definition of life myself, may I recommend 
interested people consult the first couple of papers in the collection 
"Thinking about Biology" ed. Wilfred Stein and Francisco J. Varela, 
Addison Wesley 1993? The papers are by Santa Fe Institute folks. Unlike 
most discussions of the topic, these go beyond pure philosophizing in the 
direction of computer simulations and experiments.