[beowulfey]

I think even under that definition they don't truly reproduce and still aren't really life -- they don't create the same material they arise from for example (so not allowing for additional crystals to form). A non-renewing source of the material has a maximum amount of crystal that can grow, I would imagine. This is different than something like a virus, which carries the instructs to replicate itself and the ability to travel to new hosts to create more of itself (and still isn't really considered alive).

[Ericson2314]

> A non-renewing source of the material has a maximum amount of crystal that can grow

So any biosphere that fails to escape its looming red giant was never alive?

I'm not a "all abstractions leak" type of person, so I will choose my definitions very carefully, with funny choices about clays, crystals, virus, etc. as an acceptable causality.