This is a great explanation. Perhaps new 'forms' of life or life-like processes such as this might end up helping to narrow down what life is truly defined as.
Isn't it generally true that the more variety there is of something, the easier classification becomes?
I think so. The blurry definitions of life tend to involve self organization, propagation, increase of complexity/local reduction of entropy, the problem is a lot of crystals meet that definition. Remove the constraint of mass and a lot of memes meet the definition of life, religion is a virus and all that.
Perhaps digital life will help us come up with better definitions and greater understanding.
Isn't it generally true that the more variety there is of something, the easier classification becomes?