"Artificial life" is an oxymoron, and the news about SpudCells confirms it. The phrase "artificial life" itself is a substitute for concepts. Life is not a collection of parts that can be assembled according to instructions, but a process, self-sustained existence, the ability to exist without external control. The moment you add "artificial," you admit: this is not life, but an imitation. This is exactly what happened with SpudCells. Scientists assembled a system from ready-made components - lipid membranes, DNA from E. coli and phages, ribosomes and enzymes extracted from bacteria. The system seemingly grows, divides, and even exhibits selection, but it is not alive. It works while a person pours "nutrient vesicles" into it. Without a laboratory, the line breaks after a few divisions. Scientists still do not know how to assemble even a plant cell from scratch, let alone an animal cell. The real difficulty is not in the purification of components, but in self-organization – the ability of a system to maintain and restore itself. SpudCell cannot do that. It is completely dependent on a person. Therefore, "artificial life" is not a scientific term, but a marketing formula. Either life exists - as a self-sustaining process - or it does not. There is no third option. And SpudCells is not life, but a brilliantly packaged demonstration of how far we still are from understanding even its minimum conditions.