Like an unplugged toaster

"The individual body, so familiar to us on our planet, dit not have to exist. The only kind of entity that has to exist in order for life to arise, anywhere in the universe, is the immortal replicator." (Dawkins 2006, The Selfish Gene, p. 266)

"Despite the term selfish genes, genes do not have selves: true selves are cells; without proteins and metabolic networks of recursive amino acids and intermediary molecules genes are impotent, no more "selfish" than an unplugged toaster." (Schneider & Sagan 2005, Into the Cool, p. 111)