life, n.: a broader defintion

Recently I began thinking about how to classify life, in a broader sense. My main motivation for this was to answer the question of how to classify "alien life" in a broader sense.

The definition that I think I've heard most is that "life" is something that reproduces. This is unsatisfying for a couple of reasons. The first reasons being that does this make a computer virus alive? You might say, but a computer virus isn't "organic". However, if we get down to it, organic's definition is based on its ability to be used by "life". The second reason why this definition is unsatisfying is what if we encountered a species that never died and therefore had no reason to perpetuate itself through reproduction? For that matter, what about people who can't reproduce, they are certainly not dead.

My proposed definition for life is, "that which exports entropy from itself." Life is the one thing that we know in the universe that seeks to maintain or lower its level of entropy by exporting local entropy to the surrounding environment. Something that is alive does not continually move to a lower and lower energy state. It is true that all "life" on this planet does eventually die, but not without an attempt at preservation. It is perhaps then a consequence of death that life reproduces. This makes life being defined by reproduction even less satisfying because it means the definition of life is really dictated by the reality of death.