[MD] Levels in electronic computers

[Arlo Bensinger]

[Ian]
I didn't say procreation, it's about being an organism, sufficiently 
self-organizing to "reproduce, repair or rebuild" I must have said 5 
or 6 times now.

[Arlo]
Interesting, Ian, I think I'm pretty much more or less in agreement 
with you here. Let me ask you (I think this has come up before, but 
its a fun and interesting topic), do you think a "computer virus" 
(that meets the criteria for self-replication) would count as a 
"biological pattern"?

Personally, I dislike the notion of grounding the biological level in 
being "carbon-based" or something like that. I like the idea of 
seeing the fractal boundary between inorganic and organic as being 
something like "inorganic patterns that have evolved a mechanism for 
self-replication". This way very early microbes and virii are 
"organic" not because of their "composition" but because of their 
"activity" (of course, I argue that this distinction holds true for 
all the levels- not defined by "composition" but by "activity").