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.
A bone marrow disorder is a less common, more serious cause of elevated white blood cells. Leukemia is the most frequent culprit. With this type of cancer, the bone marrow produces large numbers of defective white blood cells and releases them into the blood. Other bone marrow disorders, such as polycythemia vera, can also increase the WBC count.