Theres a series called "Through the Wormhole" on the science channel. One of the episodes was about how these scientists consider THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE as a living entity. It depends on what your definition of being alive means. They start off by making the claim that cities can be considered alive, I thought that was insane, but i was convinced by the end. It really has to do with the definition of life is. And life is a hard thing to define as we find out more and more about living creatures