. > There is no doubt that the protein synthesis function has appeared later than the self-replication function. The reason is that if there would have ever ex

. > There is no doubt that the protein synthesis function has appeared later than the self-replication function. The reason is that if there would have ever existed an RNA molecule without self-replication that could be used for protein synthesis, it would have immediately disappeared without any descendants. Such an RNA strand could have evolved from the closed chemical reactions, since RNA can have enzyme-like properties. All that's irrelevant, since you don't need a self replicator for evolution you just need replication-with-variation. The replication can be entirely from outside forces it makes no difference. For example it's possible the first reaction chains were "replicated" entirely by physical forces spreading them around, but they'd still evolve.