As an aside, I like Richard Dawkins idea that meme's can be considered actual living things. For instance, the story of Sleeping Beauty can be considered a living thing, which reproduces as different people tell it, and even evolves as it changes, and popular changes survive. It "lives" in the medium of "culture" the same way we live in the medium of "physical space" and has a symbiotic relationship with humans the same way flowers do with bees.
You could also easily make the argument that computer programs are already alive despite not being sentient.
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