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Life-the opposite of lifeless. Life is a word that represents something. Dead or lfeless is a word that represens stasis, unchanging, inanimate. Even though all molicules are in process they are not considered alive. Alive would indicate some level of perception of the world and include some interaction with its environment. Even interaction and perception are not completely enough because the mars rovers do that, so it must also be organic and develop over time. The specific aspects of this thing that is alive over a period of time is its life. Being is understood to be a neccissary attribute. A computer could do all of these things except be organic.
Sentience is a quality of life that denotes consciousness. This quality is not necessary for life, but life (I think) is neccessary for sentience. So then If some one could make a computer that meet all of the requirements listed above and was sentient but lacked only being organic then I would say it was alive.
But the definition of life is not the meaning of life. So I say Vasska has it right in saying that lifes meaning is whatever you say it means. Meaning is a relational value that is determined by the value holder.
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