The book What is life? How chemistry becomes biology by Addy Pross is an interesting read. Here is an article of the same author in Aeon that I just found: htt

The book What is life? How chemistry becomes biology by Addy Pross is an interesting read. Here is an article of the same author in Aeon that I just found: https://aeon.co/essays/paradoxes-of-stability-how-life-began-and-why-it-can-t-rest https://aeon.co/essays/paradoxes-of-stability-how-life-began... Summary of the idea: there are self-replicating chemical systems (e.g. start with a single type of molecule that shows autocatalysis) which will undergo variation (replication mistakes / 'mutations'). These will have to compete with the original systems and might take over if they show a higher replication rate (exponential growth!) in the environment that they are in, i.e. there will be selection and different niches. Complex systems seem to be better suited for this according to him as there seems to be more leeway to work in non-ideal conditions. So there is a sort of darwinian selection process that leads to complexification which in turn leads to what we consider as life. It does not claim to explain how life on Earth historically came to be but why life might be sort of inevitable.