They are obviously alive, but also we are obviously a colony organism. The various bacteria we transmit from mother to child, the mitochondria inherent to our c

They are obviously alive, but also we are obviously a colony organism. The various bacteria we transmit from mother to child, the mitochondria inherent to our cells, all of this stuff is just part of a self-similarity of life from top to bottom. With sufficient zoom-out, we need not treat individuals (or pairs) as the only unit of life replication.