The varieties of material existence

In that technical sense, solids, liquids, and gases are all states of matter (as are superconductors, superfluids, and numerous other more exotic phases), while things like life or consciousness or universal computers are not. There are a few common mechanisms: extremizing physical quantities (black holes, Bose-Einstein condensates, superconductors); evolution (cells, higher forms of life, consciousness, many forms of technology, including the iPhone); asking fundamental questions (universal computers, Drexlerian universal constructors, the Utility Fog). So my very rough picture is that a (living) human body is a system with the following properties:

A big part of the reason this question bothers me is because I have two broad (and very different) frameworks for thinking about matter.

Source: cognitivemedium.com