If we can call normal viruses life, they being just RNA covered with protein, no internal workings, and certainly no consciousness, then I think we ought to call computer viruses life as well.

They multiply, the can evolve, they defend themselves. What more does one need? Sure, they’re not biological, but why is that important to the concept of life?
If people say that a computer virus is ‘just’ a file, one can perhaps make the argument that a biological virus is ‘just’ a strand of RNA covered with a coat of protein.

For those who say that it cannot feel, neither can a biological virus. And I’m sure that bacteria cannot ‘feel’ either.

Molecular Biocomputing

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