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> Unlike the Cartesian argument that living beings are like man-made machines, Kant was the first author who defended the view that organisms are deeply different from machines because their parts and activities are non-separable, and the functions of these parts are not externally imposed, but rather intrinsically determined.
*Moreno & Mossio*
Biological Autonomy - A Philosophical and Theoretical Enquiry
They might **behave** (function) similarly to machines, but the real difference is how they are **produced** and maintained.
The main difference between "man-made" machines and other simple physical #structures (#products) and #autonomous, living #systems is in the way they are "produced".
Machines are #built from the #outside by an #allopoietic process similar to #sedimentation of placing layer upon layer of "things" and connecting them to "inform" a unified single structure.
Organisms, on the other side, are single unified and integrated entities from the moment of their inception, and all their "components" #grow from the #inside out in parallel and at the same time in a closed circular #autopoietic process.