" Whenever we find a new phenomenon which partakes to some degree of the nature of those which we have already termed “living phenomena,” but does not conform to all the associated aspects which define the term “life,” we are faced with the problem whether to enlarge the word “life” so as to include them, or to define it in a more restrictive way so as to exclude them. We have encountered this problem in the past in considering viruses, which show some of the tendencies of life—to persist, to multiply, and to organize— but do not express these tendencies in a fully-developed form. "

― Norbert Wiener , The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society