Comment by grupthink

All dimensions are a factor. Life could exist on different time-scales (e.g. it moves so slow we thought it was inanimate). It could exist on different physical-scales (be so large we don't realize we are a part of it). Or, it could exist on an entirely different plane of existence (on a desolate planet in a shard of silicon that is turing complete and quietly simulating its own recursive universe).