Boundaries

A colony. That's what we are. A colony of unicellular beings, with work division like in a bee hive. Different types of cells, different castes, different roles. Each cell having maybe a consciousness of its own. Do unicellular protists have any consciousness? Do different species have different levels of consciousness? Do separate cells in the body have certain amount of consciousness? What's consciousness anyway?

At the end of the day, we're just conglomerates of matter conscious of its existence. What are the boundaries of the body? Each cell has its boundaries and so does each tissue and each organ. And same goes for the whole organism. But what are the boundaries of the organism? What's the difference between a colony and an organism? After all, life is a bit subjective. It's all matter. The difference is that a living being is conscious of its existence. Or is it always? 

The outermost living layer of our body is the epidermis. But it's not the end. It produces non living substances, such as a layer of keratin and hair. And we surely regard that as a part of our body and, therefore, our ego. A snail produces a shell that's not alive but is part of its body. Now a hermit crab also has a shell, but it doesn't produce it. It just uses an abandoned snail shell. Is there any difference between the way the shell is regarded by the snail and the crab? Do both of them regard it as a part of their body? Where's the boundary of the ego? 

We produce carbon dioxide during our breathing. Is that a part of us? We live on Earth as part of an ecosystem. Aren't we just a cell belonging to the body of the planet? Aren't the planets just cells of the universe? What are the boundaries of a living being? What are the boundaries of the ego? What is even life?