What is life? The enigmatic question that on one hand seems so simple and on the other eludes simplicity. The emergent property of complexity. A list of characteristics. A verb rather than a noun.
How can this question about life be definitively answered? I'm not sure, but as the supreme court justice quipped as he attempted a ruling on the nature of pornography, "No one knows how to define it, but everyone knows it when they see it." With this sort of theme, "...know it when they see it," I offer the following reading list and links based on the notion that one can never know too much, but can certainly know too little. I have compiled an eclectic list that reflects an eclectic subject. Here is a smorgasbord of books and internet resources to tempt the palates of those hearty individuals who are interested in seeking an answer to the life question. Maybe with enough of this intellectual sustenance you may be able to synthesize your own solution. Read on!
1. First Landing by Robert Zubrin
A Mars novel from a former senior engineer at Lockheed Martin, president of the Mars Society , and founder of Pioneer Astronautics, a succesful space exploration and development firm. Here's an authentic account of the first manned Mars Mission and the discovery of life on the Red Planet.
2. Artificial Worlds: Computers, Complexity and the Riddle of Life by Richard Morris
3. A List of books about Artificial Creatures
4. A University of Texas site begins your resources for the Origin of Life. A simple page with good links, it contains a small geological time scale.
5. CELLS:ORIGINS is a text page with chronological links that describe the basic scenario on the origin of Prokaryotic cells.
6. The Astrobiology Web is a world unto itself. It is on your Mars Resource page as a complete site for obvious reasons. The Exobiology and the Origin of Life page has many links, but the Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth and Elsewhere is the best.
7. Prokaryotic organisms on Earth live in an incredible number of different and often harsh environments. Life in Extreme Environments will link you to current information about these life forms and their relationship to the origin of life theory.
8. Creatures of the Thermal Vents
9. Intimate Strangers-Bacteria and the Origin of Life
10. Artificial Life
12. Digital Biota
Why is Life trying to Enter Digital Space?
Is Life Attempting to Evolve into Digital Environments?
What is the relationship between complexity and the "rules" of life?
Fractals and Biomorphs
Is Quantum Evolution the New Science of Life?
Quantum Evolution-Life in the Multiverse
The Complexity and Artificial Life Research Concept
Complex Adaptive Systems and Artificial LIfe
Neural Networks and Artificial Life
MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory