Life has a standard biological definition, but the moment we explore edge cases—AI, extraterrestrial microbes, immortal beings—the concept stretches beyond chemistry into cognition and identity.
The Mindscape Framework presents a layered philosophy of the mind: consciousness is the structured experience of reality, heuristics are its evolved shortcuts, and worldview and identity are higher-order constructions that emerge.
Animal brains learn by impressions. You are born into a family, into a culture at a particular time. Your spacetime literally forges who you start out as.