The essence of life

If the essence of life is the vast amounts of information stored within DNA, then doesnt that mean in a term that life is information stored and copied? Then what is to keep the thought of a living thing only to those who possese DNA, a machine that is created by another machine for example. The machine that created it, recieved programing in binary code that gave instructions on how to build the machine, then the machine was created, binary code could be seen as DNA, the creator machine the mother, and the created machine the offspring. Then that also brings up the fact that everything is alive, every atom in the universe is made up of a certain combination neutrons, electrons, and protons, differnt combinations create differnt materials, as with DNA in plants and animals. So who is to judge wether something is truly alive or not?