A Novel Theory of Life and Its Implications on Future Robots and AI

Despite our increasing scientific understanding of biological processes, the fundamental nature of life itself remains one of science’s most profound mysteries. While we can easily recognise living things, defining precisely what makes something ‘alive’ has proven remarkably challenging. Dr Yunus Çengel from the University of Nevada is pioneering a radical new way of thinking about life – not as an emergent property that arises from complex chemical systems and passively qualifies matter, but as an ‘agency’ that actively controls and governs matter, much like the laws and forces of physics that govern the physical world as the ‘agency of physics’.