>For many years biologists and philosophers what constitudes

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>For many years biologists and philosophers what constitudes life, and the definition often involved the ability to self-replicate or have genetic machinery for some fundemental processes. Viruses were often excluded from that definition of life, partly because they use the genetic machinery of their hosts for replication and other essential functions. But most species have to use some aspects of the genetic machinery of other species at some point in their life cycle. In fact, some viruses are more complicated than some other forms of life, because they often have a complex life history that involves a parasitic stage and a free-living stage used to find new hosts.
>It is, then, no clear place to draw the line. Viruses are in many ways the most succesful lifestyle on earth. They have outsourced to other species almost everything needed to sustain them, and in doing so they have become the most numerous form of life. Some obligate bacterial parasites and mutualists have genomes so small and lifestyles so depedent on host that they are at the interface between organisms and organelles.
Tfw NEETs will become the most succesful lifestyle.