There is ambiguity about what it constitutes for something to be alive. If — once initiated, that is, born — reproduction, variation, aggregation into more complex forms, and extinction are definitive, then a free-running computer program named Tierra may meet the test, since it does all of these. So, for that matter, might a computer meeting the famous Turing test: namely, if you can’t tell the difference between the answers a human or a machine gives to your question, then both should be considered to be conscious and hence alive.

A New York Times article, by Natalie Angier, notes that maybe the economy is alive in the same sense as an ant colony. Both are “super organisms, with the individual functions widely distributed yet intimately connected, mutually responsive, dynamic and ever-changing.” Even if not true (though it might be!), the metaphor is intriguing.

We do speak of the delicate interconnectedness of factors in economic development. We also acknowledge — much as in chaos theory, where a tiny change in one part of an overall system can have unpredictable cataclysmic effects in another part — that we do not quite understand the way in which a tug or a push here or there in our economy will result in desired results. That, after all, is why we turn to our modern Delphic Oracle of Alan Greenspan to solve economic riddles. His doctoring to the body economic is nominally through monetary policy, but his opaque pronouncements have even more power to heal or hurt. For he is not only oracle, but comforting family doctor to those who are part of this turgid and unpredictable entity that we call our national, regional and local economy.

If you wish to learn more about the dynamics of this super organism, register for the Kitsap Regional Economic Development Council’s Decision Makers Breakfast on Jan. 15, by calling (360) 377-9499 or at www.kitsapedc.org. Forecasting the moves this “living” economic entity may take, and how it may affect business decisions in the coming year, will be the main topic.