Life-machine boundary dissolution

Argues 21st-century machines share properties once unique to living systems, collapsing categorical distinctions.

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21st-century machines are increasingly unpredictable and noisy.Quantum computers, ML systems, and evolved machines exploit uncertainty rather than requiring determinism.
Living things are not 20th-century machines, but may be 21st-century machines.Core thesis: the machine metaphor requires updating, not abandoning, in light of modern machine behavior.
Machines can now make machines.Evolutionary algorithms and self-organizing systems blur distinction between evolved and designed.
Modern machines are increasingly interdependent, not independent.Challenges classical assumption that machines are separate from environment and each other.
Modern machines are increasingly resistant to reductionist analysis and explanation.Deep neural networks, swarms, and complex autonomous systems require holistic ethological and cognitive approaches.
The life vs. machine distinction is relevant only to the lowest class of machines available in prior decades and is not fundamental.Claim that the organism–machine dichotomy is outdated.