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Can we say
that viruses, for example, are cognizant? Yes, insofar as they react to stimuli; but they are alive
essentially because they reproduce and grow. Computers are non-living because even though they can
cognize, they do not develop biologically (grow), and cannot produce offspring. It is not cognition that
determines life, then: it is rather proliferation and maturation towards a state of death; and death occurs
only to living substances.