
 In origin-of-life experiment, cooperative molecules win out - co_pl_te
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/10/in-origin-of-life-experiment-cooperative-molecules-win-out/
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cristianpascu
Origin of life and consciousness. The two mysteries that, in spite of all
progress made in all sciences, have no explanation in sight.

It's easy to put a dogma on them, just as it's as easy to dismiss supernatural
explanations just because they're supernatural (although metaphysically
plausible).

But it strikes me just how hard the scientific community is trying to find a
very particular kind of explanation in order to dismiss others: mind is the
brain, life is just self-replicating molecules.

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jabr
I think you'd have a hard time finding a scientist in the field that doesn't
think that the mind is the result of the brain's action, but in origin of life
research, "self-replicating molecules" is not the only game in town.

The two main approaches are "replicator-first" and "metabolism-first", though
the replicators seem to do better in the popular press. I did my doctoral work
in this field, and I was in the metabolism camp along with many of the major
scientists working on the problem.

In a nutshell, "metabolism-first" means that a network of many interacting
molecules were changing their local environment, eventually creating various
feedback cycles that amplified the effect. Meaningful replication (especially
of the RNA/DNA "informational polymer" variety) likely came significantly
later, and almost certainly after the metabolic system had already achieved a
basic state of homeostasis.

It was likely an evolutionary advancement of the "metabolic system" to use
molecules like RNA (if not RNA itself, initially) to establish a more robust
homeostasis by encoding information about the system in a more stable form.

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pknight
I don't think any scientist questions that the brain is integral to the
experience of consciousness, but there are quite a few cogent scientists that
challenge the mainstream proposition that consciousness is merely an
epiphenomenon of the brain. It does seem that mainstream scientists feel
married to a mechanistic/material/reductionist world view.

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VSerge
This is very interesting indeed. It goes a long way towards displaying a view
of organisms as an ecosystem composed of a very large and diversified family
of symbiots (cells), themselves composed of synergistic molecules, with all
the chemical reactions happening in a joyfully probabilistic & dynamic
equilibrium.

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oinksoft
Sounds like Kropotkin's mutual aid theory is still kicking!

