[markdown]

> Who are we as humans to decide what that means for them?

Is that a joke? Rats, cockroaches, and mosquitoes are all life forms. Poison ivy is a life form. Guinea worms are life forms.

We as intelligent beings get to decide what it all means. We can crush them, we can use them to our advancement, or we can set them up as gods and worship them.

But none of those things are beings. It's our language, and we , not mice, get to decide what the word "being" means.

[warent]

It's not a joke. It's a frank question. We might decide what the word "being" means to us, but that doesn't change the reality of what the word is pointing to.