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One thing that seems to be missed in, at least, formulating the problem of origin of life, is that cells don't reproduce themselves. No living organism reproduc
by cristianpascu 11y ago
One thing that seems to be missed in, at least, formulating the problem of origin of life, is that cells don't reproduce themselves. No living organism reproduces itself. Cells split into two different cells and the mother cell ceaces to exist. What it's reproduced is the suite of processes that make possible the existence and multiplication of a certain kind of complex entities, what we call living organisms. It's processes themselves that pose the problem.
And thing is that laws of physics don't have it in themselves to give birth to processes when by 'process' we mean something more in line of a function, something that would not allow us to say that the Sun is a living organism, although there's processes happening inside a star.
- euyyn 11y agoThe cell as an entity doesn't reproduce, but that's not bigger a problem than the fact that an animal as an entity doesn't reproduce either. The ideas of the extended phenotype work inward also: the genes that do reproduce are the genes that codify reproduction. All other genes and structures of the cell are merely helping that happen. They vary because that increased the long-term chances of reproduction happening. From that point of view, there's no need to invoke processes, nor entities like organisms or cells: what's being reproduced are the genes to reproduce, and the laws governing it are just mathematics, like with a prion or a virus.