[Ichneumon]

Just take two skin cells, one alive, one dead and describe the difference between them.

In the dead one, the biochemical machinery has ceased to operate.

[Alamo-Girl]

Fascinating. To the thought experiment I raised “Just take two skin cells, one alive, one dead and describe the difference between them” your responses were very similar:

Doctor Stochastic: The "live" cell will be generally more active than the "dead" cell. (Chemical reactions going on, etc.)

Ichneumon: In the dead one, the biochemical machinery has ceased to operate.

What Doctor Stochastic calls being “active” and what Ichneumon calls “operating” is what I have been reading as “information”, i.e. “successful communication”. Or in the newer (albeit somewhat less communicative) Shannon based definition “decrease in uncertainty”.

Both of you have prejudiced your verb choice with biochemical causation. But it seems to me that suggesting cause is circular reasoning and thus should not be a factor in answering the question, especially since both the live and dead cells have the same basic chemical composition and DNA.

"Activity" or "operation" are fairly close to "information" but IMHO fall short in that you could shake a dead skin cell like a martini and it would still not be alive. IOW, such activity or operation must be also be autonomous and meaningful. Therefore, I prefer the word I see used most often to describe it: information (successful communication). The dead skin cell has ceased to communicate.