Figure 11.4: Complexity is a hallmark of life. The motion of an object corresponds to a pattern in spacetime. An inanimate clump of ten particles accelerating toward the left constitutes a simple pattern (left), while the particles that make up a living organism constitute a complex pattern (middle), corresponding to the complex motions that accomplish information processing and other vital processes. When a living organism dies, it eventually disintegrates and its particles separate from each other (right). These crude illustrations show merely ten particles; your own spacetime pattern
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