I mean what about a prion? Doesn't that kind of do what viruses do except on a much simpler scale? In other words it forces the replication of itself due to how its chemicals are composed and arranged.

Viruses also kind of do the same thing due to the arrangement of the chemicals they force the reproduction of themselves, just on a much more complex scale.

That's how I think of viruses at least. I mean I'm coming from a non science background so you know I don't exactly know what I'm talking about here but to me they seem like just an arrangement of chemicals that Force the reproduction of themselves when they come into contact with certain cells.

It's definitely a weird gray area though and does not neatly fit into the constructs that we have created