Many features commonly associated with life are not, by themselves, evidence that something is alive.
Movement, growth, responsiveness, complexity, and self-organisation can all occur in systems that are not living. Fire spreads and consumes resources. Crystals grow. Weather systems display complex and dynamic organisation. None of these systems maintains itself through viability-oriented, constraint-closed organisation.
Conversely, living systems do not always appear active. Dormant seeds, bacterial spores, and other inactive biological forms may exhibit few obvious signs of activity while remaining capable of reorganising and resuming viability under appropriate conditions.
For this reason, APS distinguishes appearance from diagnosis. The question is not whether a system looks alive but whether it maintains itself through organised processes that contribute to its continued persistence.
Observable characteristics can provide evidence, but they are not definitions of life. Diagnosis therefore requires examining the organisation of a system rather than relying on appearance alone.
Living systems are identified by the organisation they sustain, not by how alive they appear.