[colinm]

1) Dead.

2) Alive.

3) Somewhere in between.

[SilasX]

1) non-life: rocks, water, sand

2) definitely life: animals, plants, fungi

3) self-replicating systems that stay far from equilibrium for a substantial time: hurricanes, fire, Benard cells, viruses

[anigbrowl]

3)

One of those things is not like the others - the abstracted information and constructed envelope of a virus seems qualitatively different to me, since that structure doesn't depend on external factors for its basic coherence. +1 for mentioning Benard cells, did not know of those.