Life Form

It has been a while since l thought about life forms but I was there this morning as I listened to someone whose firm has created a digital pet in the form of an 18"- long dinosaur. The pet will explore its environment and modify its code as it learns. The aim - to have people more emotionally involved with technology. Now, I'm quite fond of my technology, as anyone who knows me will attest - but I'm not at all sure about this trend! Do they want us to cuddle up with the toaster? Commiserate with the coffee-maker? Get ready for the next generation of robots? It seems that in some circles at least, robots are now "life forms"! And we're not talking Data-type androids a la Star Trek here. Now there was a life form! But what defines a life form? And could it be more helpful than the www.dictionary.com offering?

life form
n. The characteristic morphology of a mature organism

I like this one from www.wikipedia.com better. Generally, all six characteristics are required for a population to be considered a life form.

While there is no universal agreement on the definition of life, scientists generally accept that the biological manifestation of life exhibits the following phenomena:
1. Organization - Living things are comprised of one or more cells, which are the basic units of life.
2. Metabolism - Metabolism produces energy by converting nonliving material into cellular components (synthesis) and decomposing organic matter (catalysis). Living things require energy to maintain internal organization (homeostasis) and to produce the other phenomena associated with life.
3. Growth - Growth results from a higher rate of synthesis than catalysis. A growing organism increases in size in all of its parts, rather than simply accumulating matter.
4. Adaptation - Adaptation is the accommodation of a living organism to its environment. It is fundamental to the process of evolution and is determined by the individual's heredity.
5. Response to stimuli - A response can take many forms, from the contraction of a unicellular organism when touched to complex reactions involving all the senses of higher animals. A response is often expressed by motion: the leaves of a plant turning toward the sun or an animal chasing its prey.
6. Reproduction - The division of one cell to form two new cells is reproduction. Usually the term is applied to the production of a new individual (either asexually, from a single parent organism, or sexually, from two differing parent organisms), although strictly speaking it also describes the production of new cells in the process of growth.

So does a robot quality as a "life form"? Or is it all part of a marketing campaign?