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Life is anything that grows and eventually dies, i.e., ceases to proliferate and be cognizant.

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.

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