I honestly think that most microbial stuff (prions, viruses, even bacteria to some extent) is closer to machinery than anything a layman would consider "life."
Sure, it's autonomous self-replicating machinery that actively seeks and processes its own fuel, but... well, you could design a macroscale machine that does this.
You wouldn't want to, because you'd be Ted Faro, but it's possible.
stellarfury t1_jbqop8n wrote
Reply to comment by Nymaz in I just learned that the known shortest DNA in an “organism” is about 1700 base pairs in a certain virus. Is there a minimum amount of “code” required for an organism (or virus) to function in any capacity? by mcbergstedt
I honestly think that most microbial stuff (prions, viruses, even bacteria to some extent) is closer to machinery than anything a layman would consider "life."
Sure, it's autonomous self-replicating machinery that actively seeks and processes its own fuel, but... well, you could design a macroscale machine that does this.
You wouldn't want to, because you'd be Ted Faro, but it's possible.