A while ago we had an interesting discussion here on the “nature” of Nature. I just found a nice thought to add into that mix from Aristotle. I’m paraphrasing a little (from here), but as I understand it Aristotle said the difference between something natural and man-made (an artifact) is that natural objects have “self-movement”. Something natural has an “innate impulse to change”. For a plant or animal, it would be growth. For a rock or something, I suppose it would be crumbling, etc. Man-made artifacts on the other hand are created out of natural things. Their only impulse to change is the impulse to revert back to their original natural state. This accounts for why things we make break or decay.