I’m in favor of multi-level selection theory. But at *any* level there have to be multiple competing populations as well as inheritance. I simply don’t see that being the case at the level of an entire biosphere. Which means that I don’t think it makes sense to talk about biospheric adaptations.

As for defining life, it certainly is a fuzzy concept, like all complex concepts. But what’s problematic in saying that an ant hill is not, per se, alive, but rather made of living organisms?