[“at the onset of a process of self-organization…the mechanisms become extremely sensitive to minor fluctuations in the environment…”naturally selecting” one assembly pattern over another” -Manuel DeLanda, Nonorganic Life ]
Many of our networks can be described as “alive” because, while they are not made of biological tissue, they have become so complex, that the initial care that was needed for upkeep now emerges from the system itself. Basically, the system started as a few materials (maybe including people) that organized themselves along some kind of pattern. As the pattern repeated itself and spread through different systems it was changed based on what the system dictated most appropriate for those interactions, much like the self-organizing systems, described by DeLanda, that may have lead to life on earth. Once a certain level of complexity was achieved the human decisions that initially directed the networks almost seem decided by the systems within the networks. Humans become the worker bees building the nest according to the nest’s direction.