[Bill DeWitt]

While inductive reasoning conspires to claim that life requires what life exhibits, deduction does not. True, so far, every form of life we know about shows homeostasis and growth and reproduction, etc.  in some direct or indirect form. It does not follow that all life must. A true test of Life will build specific rules from general principles.

Without this, we are left with the following list:

1) Ability to sense data
2) Ability to react to stimuli

Which can be condensed into ?1) Stimulus Response"

Basically one of the traditional 5 attributes of Life which can be found in many 3rd grade science books.

Unfortunately, a mousetrap exhibits stimulus response, which means I should apologize to my mousetrap for treating it like a tool instead of a life-form.