Eli5-If a virus isn’t technically alive, I would assume it doesn’t have instinct. Where does it get its instructions/drive to know to infect host cells and multiply?

Question

Eli5-If a virus isn’t technically alive, I would assume it doesn’t have instinct. Where does it get its instructions/drive to know to infect host cells and multiply?

In: 7067

Answer 1

What determines technically alive is a set of man made and arguably arbitrary criteria. It’d be easy to redesign the criteria to include viruses and it’d be equally valid.