Subsumed complexity: abiogenesis as a by-product of complex energy transduction

Abstract

The origins of life bring into stark relief the inadequacy of our current synthesis of thermodynamic, chemical, physical and information theory to predict the conditions under which complex, living states of organic matter can arise. Origins research has traditionally proceeded under an array of implicit or explicit guiding principles in lieu of a universal formalism for abiogenesis. Within the framework of a new guiding principle for prebiotic chemistry called , organic compounds are viewed as by-products of energy transduction phenomena at different scales (subatomic, atomic, molecular and polymeric) that retain energy in the form of bonds that inhibit energy from reaching the ground state. There is evidence for an emergent level of complexity that is overlooked in most conceptualizations of abiogenesis that arises from populations of compounds formed from atomic energy input. We posit that different forms of energy input can exhibit different degrees of dissipation complexity within an identical chemical medium. By extension, the maximum capacity for organic chemical complexification across molecular and macromolecular scales subsumes, rather than emerges from, the underlying complexity of energy transduction processes that drive their production and modification.This article is part of the themed issue 'Reconceptualizing the origins of life'.

Re-conceptualizing the origins of life

“…We are led to consider life not as a collection of biological objects, but as a living process. This informs new thinking on chemical origins of life, with regard to whether the process was inevitable or not [59] and what energy sources could have driven it [60]. The study of life as a living process also leads quite naturally to enlarging the process from chemically interacting primitive biological entities to socially interacting high-level biological entities (e.g.…”

An open source computational workflow for the discovery of autocatalytic networks in abiotic reactions

“… 77 Such models diverge in their assumptions of the required complexity of the molecules assumed to have been involved versus the complexity of the processes involved. 101 This workflow offers a simple way to parse complex data collected in this context. We are presently using this workflow to explore other CRNs which are more easily relatable to the origins of life.…”

Prebiotic Geochemical Automata at the Intersection of Radiolytic Chemistry, Physical Complexity, and Systems Biology

“…Subsumed complexity is the idea that the first living cell, as a complex arrangement of atoms and molecules, was preceded by and derived from an arrangement of matter and energy that was at least as complex as the cell itself. By extension, the process by which life emerged cannot be characterized as a gradual increase in complexity; rather, there was a preexisting background of physical complexity, within which chemical complexity became gradually subsumed until life emerged [22]. It is built upon the concepts of "complexity as thermodynamic depth" [56] and the relative entropy of different forms of input and output energy [57].…”

“…In this paper, we extend the idea of subsumed complexity [22] to map out stratified hierarchical relationships between physical and chemical objects that produce key prebiotic molecules. These relationships extend from subatomic objects up to cells, where they join contiguously with biological nested hierarchies.…”