[Nebullis]

There is a very sharp dividing line, or difference, between the presence or absense of life. There is no in-between state. A thing is either alive, or it is not.

Right, betty boop, that's what you said earlier. My question is what is that sharp dividing line? What is it that demarcates something living from something non living?

[betty boop]

What is it that demarcates something living from something non living?

Presence or absence. That is all. The DNA is the same regardless of whether the entity is alive or dead. But something is definitely "absent" in the latter case. We know this intuitively, we know this from direct observation. But that "something" may prove extraordinarily difficult to "isolate" experimentally.