[FRIAM] Origin of Life (was: Rugged fitness landscapes)

[Stephen Guerin]

David Breecker writes:
> Phil, indulge a layman for a moment:  isn't auto-catalysis 
> widely considered to be the origination of life, and thus evolution?

Harold Morowitz and Eric Smith have a very approachable working paper on Origin
of Life:
http://www.santafe.edu/research/publications/wpabstract/200608029

ABSTRACT: Life is universally understood to require a source of free energy and
mechanisms with which to harness it. Remarkably, the converse may also be true:
the continuous generation of sources of free energy by abiotic processes may
have forced life into existence as a means to alleviate the buildup of free
energy stresses. This assertion -- for which there is precedent in
non-equilibrium statistical mechanics and growing empirical evidence from
chemistry -- would imply that life had to emerge on the earth, that at least the
early steps would occur in the same way on any similar planet, and that we
should be able to predict many of these steps from first principles of chemistry
and physics together with an accurate understanding of geochemical conditions on
the early earth. A deterministic emergence of life would reflect an essential
continuity between physics, chemistry, and biology. It would show that a part of
the order we recognize as living is thermodynamic order inherent in the
geosphere, and that some aspects of Darwinian selection are expressions of the
likely simpler statistical mechanics of physical and chemical self-organization.