Organism and Mechanism

An organism – that is, a living being – is not a mechanism. An organism is alive; a mechanism is not. An organism runs itself; it is a self. It’s not simply a specific configuration of molecules and matter parts; it’s an organization as such – a unified, indivisible whole. In fact, it is a self-organizing individual instantiation of life. The organism is that which is consciously or unconsciously aware. While its “parts” consist of matter, they are not physical in the same sense as the “parts” of an engine. Rather, they are functional tasks that facilitate continuance of the organism through a continual shaping of matter to match an enduring form.

Biology is the science of life. Physics and chemistry are the sciences of matter and mechanisms.1 In physics, for every action, there is an opposite, equal reaction. Life doesn't react; it overreacts – it brings more to the response than the initiating action requires. In the evolutionary struggle for survival, this “extra” response is rewarded by continuance of the individual organism. Unlike the precise scientific prediction of a mechanism’s reaction to a force, an organism’s action in any given moment is driven by its own prediction. Real or imagined, a perceived threat to survival will be met by a response driven in part by inherited traits, learned responses and individual factors such as age, health, and other conditions specific to the individual. 

This ability to predict is essential to survival and is a built-in feature of all life. In every moment, consciously or unconsciously, an organism is predicting: threat / no threat, fight / flight. To the extent that the predictions it makes are appropriate for the circumstance, the individual survives. Such prediction is outside the realm of mechanisms – it is unique to awareness and life.

1 Life itself, as we will show, is more than biochemistry.