organismilisation

Organismilisation is a term used in discussions of life-like properties in non-biological systems to describe the hypothetical process by which an entity develops characteristics of an organism, including integrated structure, regulation, and adaptive behavior. In practice the term is not widely standardized; it appears mainly in speculative biology, philosophy of biology, and literature on artificial life.

Core features commonly associated with organismilisation include self-maintenance through energy use and metabolic-like processes, regulatory organization that maintains internal states, adaptive responses to environmental change, and differentiation among subunits or tissues. Some accounts also envisage reproduction or the capacity to propagate an organizational blueprint across generations of units or systems.

The concept is closely related to autopoiesis, organismality, and emergence, and is often discussed alongside ideas from systems theory, synthetic biology, and artificial life. It is used to frame questions about how life-like organization might arise in ecosystems, machines, or other complex networks.

Critics warn that organismilisation can be vague or metaphorical, risking ambiguity about what counts as an organism and how criteria should be measured. Proponents emphasize its utility as a heuristic for analyzing transitions toward greater integration and autonomy.

See also: autopoiesis, organismality, emergence, artificial life, synthetic biology.