The boundary between life and nonlife was generally clear, but with certain things, it became blurred.
The Machine Race, as one of the Primal Universe's Peak Ethnic Groups, naturally counted as life.
The predecessors of the Machine Race, intelligent life, were somewhat special, possessing endless lifespans like special lifeforms below the immortal level, but they still counted as life.
Programs, meanwhile, were the technical foundation of "automated industrial production" and naturally did not count as life.
Artificial intelligence did not count as life either. At most, it was a special kind of program that simulated life.
Then did "emotional intelligence," something between intelligent life and ordinary intelligence, count as life?
If it did, was it on the same level as animals? After all, animals had emotions too.
Then why could "intelligence" not be on the same level as "plants"?
Why could "programs" not be on the same level as "fungi," "bacteria," and "blue-green algae"?
And from another angle, below "fungi," "bacteria," and "blue-green algae," there were "semiliving things" such as "viruses" and "prions."
When they were not active, "viruses" and "prions" were like ordinary matter,
possessing none of the characteristics of life at all. They were merely "macromolecular polymers."
Prions, in particular, were simply proteins. Apart from the special effects brought about by self-replication, they really did not differ much in material composition from ordinary, even nearly identical proteins.
That was how it was in physical discussions.
Then there was the metaphysical question of the meaning of life.
For intelligent beings, life's meanings varied wildly. This was proof of intelligence.
But for life without intelligence, the meaning of life was merely to exist.
First, to maintain self-existence.
Then, to maintain lineage existence.
After that, to maintain the existence of self-traces.
This was because life that could not maintain self-existence could