Complexity — information-rich, lifelike systems — erupt at the phase transition between chaos and stability. See Conway’s Game of Life.
The boundaries of phase transitions for complex systems are fractal — unlike something like water with its linear boundary. Biological creativity arises within a realm shaped by fractal geometry, where stability and chaos tug at life from either side.
When the system gets out of balance and strays too far into chaos or into machine-like rigidity, the system undergoes a mass-extinction event, and eventually, given enough time, complete death.
The thing that makes us alive necessitates that we will die.