autopond

“Living beings are characterized by their autopoetic organization. They differ from each other in their structure, but they are alike in their organization. That living beings have an organization, of course, is proper not only to them but also to everything we can analyze as a system. What is distinctive about them, however, is that their organization is such that their only product is themselves, with no separation between producer and product. The being and doing of an autopoetic unity are inseparable, and this is their specific mode of organization.”

Humberto R. Maturana & Francisco Varela, The Tree of Knowledge