A Tripartite Functional Model of Life: Redefining Living Entities Through Fulcrum, Silhouette, and Interactor Dynamics

Current biological and taxonomic paradigms struggle to formulate a universally applicable, paradox-free definition of “living entity.” Traditional approaches rely on lists of physical traits or biochemical compositions that fail when applied to edge cases or erroneously isolate an organism from its environment. This paper presents a scale- and material-independent theoretical model that shifts the definition of life from static substrate properties to dynamic functional organization. We define a living entity as any configuration of matter or energy constituted by the simultaneous existence of three interdependent functional structures: a teleonomic Fulcrum overseeing the entity’s guardianship and procreation; a physically organized Silhouette, formed by primary components crystallizing around Generative Information and bounded at the Threshold of Structural Contiguity, where components lose their continuous molecular linkage; and a localized Interactor, representing the environmental forces, energy and matter locally coupled to the entity. By enforcing the co-occurrence of these three pillars, the framework categorizes highly debated biological and synthetic edge cases, including viruses, prions, protocells, and holobionts. Furthermore, by proposing Retrograde Lineage Tracking as a convention for resolving temporal identity paradoxes and establishing criteria for operational testability, this model seeks to provide an epistemological foundation for theoretical biology and astrobiology.