Identity and Self as Physical Signatures of Life in Dictyostelium and Multicellular Systems

Abstract

In previous work we sought to address the fundamental question ``What is life?''. Building on that conceptual foundation, we here integrate traditional criteria for living systems with our recent proposals on physical identity and self, and apply them to concrete biological cases. We suggest that life can be characterized as the preservation of a well-defined identity ``at all costs'' together with the presence of a physically grounded self, and we show how this perspective illuminates the organization and social behavior of Dictyostelium and other multicellular systems.