That's a good question. I can imagine that there was a time before there was life on Earth, and then clearly there was a time X-hundred thousand years or a million years later when there were things that we would all recognize as biological.
A high count indicates the presence of inflammation in the body. Because white blood cells are calculated by the number of cells per volume of blood, test results can vary between labs. Different labs use different degrees of measurements for the white blood cell count.
The same mutation can trigger the bone marrow to release too many white blood cells. Finally, myelofibrosis can also cause an elevated white blood cell count. This condition is caused by the abnormal production of blood cells, increasing the white blood cell count during the initial period of an inflammation.