" In a simple way, the region of unlikeness called life, at the level of humble cells—without and with a nucleus—or of large multicellular organisms such as we humans are, can be defined by these two traits: the ability to regulate its life by maintaining internal structures and operations for as long as possible, and the possibility of reproducing itself and taking a stab at perpetuity. It is as if, in an extraordinary way, each of us, each cell in us, and every other cell were part of one single, gigantic, supertentacular organism, the one and only organism that began 3.8 billion years ago and still keeps going. "

― António R. Damásio , The Strange Order of Things: Life, Feeling, and the Making of Cultures