The thing I always get caught up on, when making comparisons between computers and humans wrt autonomy, is that the computer reaches the output state from the input by a clock cranking the CPU forward, ie it's a function that runs when the environment around it forces it to run. To put it in the LLM context, between words and after a Stop token, the "intelligence" is dead - frozen - suspended until the next function call.

How can a machine, then, possess anything like self-directed behavoir, when it never has a sense of self-preservation? Basically this is my axiom, that sense of self requires fear/awareness of mortality and the good sense to avoid those things that end you.

Perhaps you could concoct a machine that runs in an infinite loop with no off switch, I guess my question for you is, in what way can a machine have autonomy?

And my distinction between living and dead might be, a living system acts out of self preservation, consuming or modifying its environment to survive/thrive, while a dead system is simply acted upon by the environment its embedded in, like a crystal growing due to molecular force and temperature gradient - or an adding machine being cranked by a higher being.