“Of course, it is not clear entirely what organisms “are for”, and the idea that the purposive aspects of organismal identity can or should be allowed to be stated in this fashion are juvenile, at best. There are, however, a few obvious aspects of our existence that bear speculative. Some are instantly apparent when one examines the idea of a solar system with and without life. The ‘meaning’ of the star, and its worlds, are fundamentally different depending on this variable. Indeed, the ‘outputs’ of systems with life, what it is that energy is applied to the production and distribution of… imply rather shocking things about the nature of stars, worlds, and organisms. I would not be surprised to discover that life, simply by existing and diversifying, changes the fundamental character of time, space, form, and relation in an endlessly developing myrium of ways and domains. It may well connect stars and worlds through means we either have misapprehended or not yet discovered. We may even be such means.”

— an anonymous informant