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Generally with life we require some form of replication or it would quickly go extinct. Now, if you add in a 3D printer/assembler to the aforementioned solar-panel/battery the loop is getting rather complete for something to be considered life.

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99% of mules are sterile. And I'm not sure what the current debate on viruses and prions is. It's a difficult question to generalize.

Oh, for sure. Like worker bees and ants, they don't breed themselves, but feed the collective that does.

I guess one of the rules of life will be "It's not an object, it's a system"

Oh that's good, I like that one! But a counterpoint for fun: weather is a system. I wonder if we can find a rule that seems sane but would classify an inert gas as alive? Imagine defining life and someone rebuts with "Argon."

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