Can Life Arise from Inanimate Matter: The Perspective of Autonomic Fission
The concept of chemical evolution in the origin of life is the idea that the advanced and complex chemicals necessary for life are generated evolutionarily.
However, just having the necessary chemicals is not enough to explain the origin of life. These chemicals are merely components of living organisms.
Not only must these chemical components be generated, but they also need to be assembled in a functioning form.
This is akin to having all the parts of a car but not being able to operate it unless the parts are correctly assembled.
Moreover, in the case of living organisms, unlike cars, simply assembling the parts does not make them functional.
The idea that assembling parts makes an organism is equivalent to saying that organisms can be resurrected.
While organisms can be born, they cannot be resurrected. When thinking about the origin of life, it is necessary to correctly understand the difference between an organism being born and being resurrected.
What It Means for an Organism to Be Born
The idea that organisms are not just a collection of chemical components nor merely assembled parts tends to associate life with mystery and enigma.
However, correctly understanding the concept of birth can demystify and bring a realistic perspective to the concept of life.
The birth of an organism involves two aspects: physically emerging and becoming independent from the mother, and the separated organism becoming an autonomous living being.
In the bodies of living organisms, chemical reactions and the movement of chemicals never cease and are always in motion.
For organisms with hearts, this means the heart must always be working, and blood must always be circulating. Similarly, in single-celled organisms without hearts, continuous chemical reactions and fluid movement within the cells are necessary.
In the initial stages of a new organism being produced from the mother, the mother is responsible for triggering these chemical reactions and providing the motive force for moving chemicals. For example, in mammalian fetuses, blood flows due to the mother’s heartbeat.
Eventually, the new organism takes over the responsibility for triggering these chemical reactions and moving chemicals. Once this transition of control from the mother to the new organism occurs, the new organism can physically separate from the mother.
This is what it means for an organism to be born.
The Sequence of Achieving Autonomy and Then Independence
Autonomy, in a word, is the ability to manage one’s own internal chemical reactions and the movement of chemicals.
Physical separation represents independence.
The process begins with the organism depending on the mother for triggers and motive force and being physically unified. It then moves through a stage of gaining autonomy before achieving independence.
This sequence of gaining autonomy and then becoming independent cannot be reversed. If the organism becomes independent from the mother before achieving autonomy, it loses the triggers and motive force it depended on from the mother.
The Origin of Life
It might seem impossible for the first organisms on Earth to have been born, and even more so since they could not be resurrected. This makes the emergence of life seem mysterious.
However, correctly understanding the concept of birth solves this mystery.
For life to be born, a mother is necessary, but the mother does not need to be a living organism.
The mother can be an inanimate object capable of constructing the body of a living organism, providing the triggers for chemical reactions, and the motive force for moving chemicals.
Then, as the organism eventually gains autonomy in triggers and motive force and subsequently separates from the mother, it can be born.
The Earth’s Environment as a Mother
Before the first organisms emerged, Earth, although an inanimate environment, was not inorganic. This is because it must have been producing the advanced and complex chemical substances that make up the bodies of living organisms.
To generate these advanced and complex chemicals, the Earth’s environment must have had mechanisms as intricate as those inside the bodies of living organisms.
It is believed that the Earth had systems to facilitate chemical reactions through solar energy, heat from the sun, and geothermal energy. Furthermore, it is likely that complex chemicals in ponds and lakes initiated chemical reactions over time and through various environmental changes.
Additionally, the Earth’s water cycle, including rivers, air currents, clouds, and rain, would have continuously transported these chemicals. Locally, the movement of chemicals in ponds and lakes would have been driven by the water cycle within them.
Therefore, the Earth’s environment possessed the necessary triggers for chemical reactions and the motive force for moving chemicals. It must have also been capable of producing the chemical substances that constitute the bodies of living organisms. In essence, the Earth’s environment had the ability to act as a mother to life.
Autonomic Fission
The step of gaining autonomy internally before externalizing and becoming independent can be termed autonomic fission.
Autonomic fission is a distinct generative step from an assembly-type generation, where entities are initially assembled externally and gain autonomy through the process.
Living organisms are characterized by being born through this process of autonomic fission. At this point, the new entity does not necessarily have to be an exact replica of the parent. Even if it differs in form or properties, its genesis through autonomic fission is an essential characteristic of life.
Internalization
To continually execute autonomic fission, it is necessary to internalize resources such as materials and energy. Without this, the resources inside would diminish with each division, making further splitting impossible.
Therefore, the ability to internalize resources is also essential for life.
Internalization of resources is also necessary for homeostasis. In the origin of life, mechanisms for internalizing resources for homeostasis could have evolved first. This ability to internalize gradually evolved and became useful when the mechanism for autonomic fission emerged.
This perspective allows us to explain how the distinct mechanisms of internalization and autonomic fission could have arisen without relying on miraculous coincidences.
In Conclusion
This article has presented the understanding that the fundamental principle of the birth of life involves starting with a state of dependence on the mother for homeostasis, then acquiring autonomous homeostasis before physically becoming independent.
This process of autonomic fission, involving autonomy and independence, extends beyond the physical homeostasis of an organism and can be adapted to many other contexts.
In the psychological aspect, humans initially depend on adults and eventually achieve autonomy and independence. Similarly, in terms of lifestyle and economics, humans move from a state of dependence on adults to one of autonomy and independence.
This concept can also be applied to groups such as communities and organizations like companies, and even larger societies.
It is common for subgroups initially dependent on a larger mother group to become autonomous and eventually independent.
Thus, the process of transitioning from a state of dependence for homeostasis to acquiring autonomy and then separating and becoming independent is applicable to various subjects.
