The most intriguing is "live rabbit versus dead rabbit." What is missing from one to the other that makes it no longer living? Great question.
A better question is what is the difference between a prion and a virus.
Darwin never asked the question - and most biologists today, if they ask it at all, will usually answer themselves with long lists of properties. Such lists are invariably subjective especially concerning the enigmas (prions and viruses, etc.)
A model like Shannon's, OTOH, is unambiguous and ideologically neutral so that we can test both the alternative theories of abiogenesis as well as the model itself.
I find it amusing you both are so entertained by a point originally raised by Richard Dawkins.