BK's view: viewtopic.php?p=2082#p2082
Why would bacterial cells in the body be alters, but other cells, such as blood cells circulating freely in the blood, not be alters?
The answer seems obvious to me: the cells of our own organism share DNA and operate as part of a unified metabolic whole, while the bacteria in e.g. our gut operate as standalone organisms, focusing on their own survival, not the survival of a larger whole. They so happen to be useful to us, but they are focused on their own survival. They are cells because their subjectivity is so simple that the representation of this subjectivity on the screen of perception does not span beyond a single pixel. Moreover, we know what happens when our own cells become dissociated from us and turn into alters of their own: we call it cancer.