concept
active
concept:criterion-of-lifecriterion of life
The standard derived from Book I for judging whether a structure or process is living; now claimed to be publicly sharable.
Neighborhood — ranked by edge-count
Claims (1)
claim
- Asserts that the theoretical foundation laid out in the four books provides a public quality standard for sequences.
Chapters (1)
chapter
- This chapter argues that living processes must spread via small, independent morphogenetic sequences (snippable genes), using piecemeal evolution, a gene pool, and a network of interlinked sequences.
Related by similarity (8)
cosine ≥ 0.65 · no typed edgeEntities in the same semantic neighborhood but without a typed relation to this one — candidates for new edges or unrecognized duplicates.
- Alexander's method of spending 2-3 hours daily for twenty years comparing pairs of artifacts and buildings, asking which has more life, and identifying structural features correlating with greater wholeness
- Background definitional challenge noted as notoriously difficult, motivating the paper's approach of updating 'machine' rather than defining 'life'
- The idea that life is not merely an attribute of living organisms but an attribute of space itself; any spatial system can have more or less life depending on the life of its component centers and their density
- The general, non-biological quality that Alexander claims exists in all material systems to varying degrees.
- The measure of how much living structure a thing possesses, ranging from high (tea bowl) to low (computer casing).
- The quality that makes a space or structure feel alive, whole, and wonderful; measured by the degree of wholeness.
- A method to measure living structure by the degree of life people experience in themselves.
- The felt quality of wholeness and adaptation that makes a place truly sustainable and nourishing.