It's possible a life-like system might have parts that, on their own, don't seem like-life. Human economic activity would fall under the category of "metabolis

It's possible a life-like system might have parts that, on their own, don't seem like-life. Human economic activity would fall under the category of "metabolism" that I used, for example. Cars are not alive either; but they, are, in the loosest sense, part of a living system. Fossil fuels for shipping food around are a part of the larger system of metabolism, ultimately enabling viruses to replicate in their human hosts. Viruses are dependent on metabolism, too; even if they can't do it themselves.