Strictly speaking life is just a kind of memory. It’s a kind of stacking, made possible by energy of photons and gravity force. From a relatively simple amoeba up to us as humans, atoms and molecules are arranged such that they shape objects in time and space.  They know some kind of flexibility, a particular interaction with its surroundings and internal balancing. Represented memory is a kind of spectrum. Looking at DNA for instance, you’ll see a kind of long term memory visible in all kinds of organisms. Long, compared to what we see as (single) living organism. Mind you… There is no such thing. Without bacteria for instance, we wouldn’t be ‘alive’. Humans think themselves the centre of the universe, although utter nonsense. 

Nevertheless, a human is interesting in its memory capacity. It seems to be a culmination of echo’s of the universe, even reflecting back on the same universe by carving into long term elements. Sending neatly arranged ‘probes’ out of our solar system can be seen as memory extension, just like what we call internet and other media we use.

Personally, I am wondering why interaction of matter and energy works like that. Time for us is the essence of being. Time can not be realised without memory.