What is life? There are different definitions of living matter . Life can be defined by describing the characteristics of living matter. Li...
What is life? There are different definitions of living matter.
Life can be defined by describing the characteristics of living matter. Living matter is characterized by growth, reproduction, metabolism, and excitability. This definition, a descriptive definition of the properties of life, is suitable for describing living matter, but it does not get us any closer to the essence of life and the origin of living matter.
Life can also be defined as a special material system. Living matter is a well-defined system of chemical reactions of specific material components. One suitable way to describe life at the system level is chemoton theory. The chemoton theory can provide a comprehensive understanding of life as a chemical system and helps to understand the initial formation and initial evolutionary development of living matter. However, chemoton theory does not provide a comprehensive solution to the complex evolution of living matter.
An interesting theory for understanding how living matter works is the replicator hypothesis, popularly known as the selfish gene theory. According to this hypothesis, living matter is based on a replicator, a system that can copy itself. According to the replicator hypothesis, living matter is the carrier of the replicator, which is randomly created at the origin of life. During the evolution of life, the replicator, while copying itself, undergoes changes which, through the influence of the environment, result in the evolutionary development of the replicator, while forming and modifying the material system that carries the replicator, the living organism in which and by which the replicator spreads in the environment.
The replicator hypothesis (the selfish gene-meme theory) can explain the evolutionary emergence of self-sacrificing behavior of individuals, a phenomenon that the original Darwinian theory of evolution does not adequately address, and the extension of the replicator as meme (social behavior and habits) can explain the evolutionary development of society.
The replicator hypothesis is a convenient way to understand the functioning of living matter and the process of life's evolution, where living matter apparently is an imperfect gene-meme machine for replicating the replicator. However, the replicator hypothesis does not have a necessarily describable process for the origin of life. The replicator theory is based on the random emergence of a self-replicating system, and offers no mechanism that would causally generate the replicator in the ancestral environment.
What follows is a process, based on an evolutionary hypothesis, that not only can explain the evolutionary emergence of self-sacrificial behavior of the individual and the evolutionary development of society based on memes, but can explain the emergence of life as a process that can be described in terms of steps of necessity, into which it can be natively included, and which possess as natural consequences of the properties of living matter described earlier.
The proposed hypothesis is founded on the structural interpretation of life. The hypothesis is based on the structural definition of life as a persistently stable structure in a non-equilibrium (entropically changing) environment. Understanding life on this basis, the living matter is approached by viewing life as a process of the formation of persistently stable structure.
In a non-equilibrium system, such as the natural environment, stable structures can form in an emergent, spontaneously self-developing way. For example, most weather phenomena in the atmosphere are temporarily stable structures, but similar temporarily stable structures can form in emergent ways in countless places in nature.
The proposed hypothesis describing the definition of life is that life is a special form of such emergent structures, a structure that can persistently sustain itself in a non-equilibrium environment.
Let's examine the origin of life, the emergence of life as an enduring stable structure.
We know that simpler organic molecules formed naturally in the ancient environment. We call the result of this process the primordial soup, which is characterized by the presence of relatively high concentrations of simple organic molecules, the building blocks of life as we know it today, including simple amino acids, lipids, nucleic acids, sugars, etc., in a liquid phase at planetary scale. We can demonstrate the formation of primordial soup by experiments.
The first spontaneously formed stable structures of the primordial soup were probably microspheres formed from lipids. (This formation has long been hypothesized as a possible initial step in the evolution of life). The emergent property of such molecules is that they can spontaneously attach to each other in a liquid medium to form spherical closed structures in which the internal space is separated from the external environment.
Where these microspheres could form in the primordial soup, where lipids were present in proper concentrations in a suitable environment, free lipid molecules become more stabilized entropically by continuously incorporating into the structures, into the walls of the spheres, increasing the size of the structures (growth). However, the physical properties of the structures and their constituents place a limit on the size of the resulting sphere, and the process leads to sphere division as a consequence of growth (multiplication). This process is observable, well known, and understood as a mechanism of these types of material systems.
These microspheres may have been the first persistently stable structures in the early Earth's non-equilibrium surficial environment.
A dynamic and spontaneous exchange of materials takes place between the inner part of lipid structures and their outer environment as membrane formations act as barriers, while a chemical equilibrium is established between the two parts of places, determined by the barrier membrane and the concentrations of materials.
Microspheres are constantly forming, growing and multiplying as long as the right conditions are present to create the structure. However, microspheres in a liquid medium may also drift away from the environment in which they are formed, to a place where the conditions that allow the formation of a stable structure are no longer present. Then, due to the flow of material between the interior and exterior, the membrane of the microspheres loses material and the sphere naturally disintegrates.
The stable structure of microspheres can only exist permanently where and for as long as the lipid molecules necessary for membrane construction are present in the right concentration in the right environment.
However, this limited situation may change when a complex molecule is spontaneously and randomly formed from the components of the primordial soup that can catalyze the formation of the lipid molecules in the primordial soup from the simpler components already present. The probability of the formation of such a complex catalyst molecule is, albeit small, yet not improbable under the conditions of the primordial soup. How?
We know that the primordial soup contained amino acid molecules, which we know can spontaneously bond together in liquid phase to form complex chain molecules, peptides. We know that peptides can act as chemical catalysts. If, by chance, but with a probability that cannot be excluded, a peptide molecule that catalyzes the formation of lipids can be formed in a place, or drifts in the liquid phase to a place where the circumstances forming lipids from ingredients are present, the peptide's catalytic action will cause a sudden increase in the lipid concentration with the resulting grow of probability of microspheres forming, while the catalyst, a larger peptide molecule made up of amino acids may be trapped inside a sphere.
The resulting structure can remain stable even in an environment where there is no lipid molecule in sufficient concentration to form the membrane, but where the necessary components are present to form lipids, which, due to the dynamic flow of the materials, can be transferred to the interior of the microspheres and form the lipid molecules by the action of the peptide catalyst. At these places, the spherical structure grows and divides continuously due to the formation of lipid molecules inside. As the sphere divides, that structure remains stable in which the catalyst molecule for the formation of lipids remains enclosed. The other part, because it does not have the conditions necessary for its existence, is likely to break down after a while.
Naturally, the catalyst molecules enclosed in the microsphere can change and become damaged, even if the microsphere's walls reduce the environmental impact and provide protection. Yet, even such a structure can break down if it drifts into an unsuitable environment or if the catalyst molecule becomes damaged.
However, the persistence to be a stable structure of such systems may be enhanced by a special ability of the peptide molecules built from amino acids by possessing a characteristic property in addition to the specific catalytic effect. This specific property is that nucleic acid molecules (four types of ribo-nucleic acids) can bind (in groups of three) to the surface of certain amino acid molecules (twenty different amino acids). Peptide chains that are built up of amino acid molecules that bind ribo-nucleic acids can be promoters of the formation of ribo-nucleic acid polymer molecules.
We know that under ancient conditions, ribo-nucleic acid molecules could have been naturally formed in the primordial soup and could have reached the interior of the microspheres due to the dynamic flow of matter. The binding of ribo-nucleic acid molecules to the surface of suitable amino acid molecules is a weaker, secondary chemical bond, but we know that it is possible, that this bonding exists, and that in the more protected interior of the microspheres, the bond may even be more permanent.
We also know that well defined three of these ribo-nucleic acids can bind to any of the twenty different amino acids, which nucleic acids can be linked to each other by primary chemical bonding creating triplets. Such chemically bound ribo-nucleic acid triplets could have formed spontaneously under the conditions of the primordial soup, but the formation of such sequences could also have been facilitated or catalyzed by the presence of the corresponding amino acids.
Nucleic acids, and specific nucleic acid sequences of the triplet groups that match certain amino acids and those amino acid peptides may have been present in the primordial soup. Proper amino acids in the primordial soup, and the built peptide molecules could have facilitated the formation of ribo-nucleic acid polymer sequences on their surface.
Based on the hypothesis of life as a persistently stable structure, the microspheres carrying the special peptides discussed earlier could have been formed in the primordial soup as a direct consequence of the circumstances, and could have survived for even prolonged periods of time. Simple nucleic acid molecules and nucleic acid sequences could have been transported inside such structures by dynamic material flow.
These nucleic acid molecules and their sequences could, if the amino acid components of the catalyst peptide and the physical form of the peptide allowed, attach to the surface of the peptide molecule, and could then form longer nucleic acid polymers by strong chemical bonding with each other corresponding to the amino acid sequence of the peptides already present. These nucleic acid polymers could persist for a relatively long time in the more protected inner part of the microsphere.
The resulting nucleic acid polymers could occasionally detach from the peptide due to weaker binding and float freely inside the protection providing sphere.
Then, amino acids in specific sequence can be bound to the well-defined sequence of the released nucleic acid polymers from among the organic molecules present inside the sphere, which amino acids, also can bound to each other due to proximity, resulting in the formation of specific peptide chains corresponding to the sequence of the nucleic acid polymer.
In the cooperation of the formed nucleic acid polymer molecule, a copy of the peptide that is similar to the one already present can be created, such as the peptide molecule that catalyzes the formation of lipids.
During growth and division, those spheres in which the catalyst molecule for lipid formation is present can maintain the stable structure, but even more stable are those spheres in which the corresponding nucleic acid polymer is present, since the presence of the nucleic acid polymer enables the formation of the peptides that generate the lipids required for a stable structure. More and more of these structures will be present, because they are the ones that can survive, grow and divide for longer periods of time, the ones that form a persistent structure over time.
The stability of these structures is defined by the presence of the appropriate nucleic acid polymer, which provides a template for the formation of the specific peptide molecules.
Note: The existence of this lipid-producing peptide is not only hypothetical, as there is protein in current living cells built up of the mentioned specific amino acid molecules that catalyze the production of lipids.
Note: Proteins in the current, evolved form of life are based on the pattern of nucleic acid polymers. At the beginning of life (according to the proposed hypothesis), certain specific peptide molecules (for example catalysts for lipids) are necessarily present, whereas the spontaneous formation of nucleic acid polymers with specific sequences is unlikely. Therefore, initially the process may have proceeded in the peptide -> nucleic acid polymer direction.
Note: The larger protein chains, consisting of many amino acid molecules are associated with a specific secondary form that determines their function, which is formed during and after protein synthesis based on the nucleic acid polymeric pattern. The secondary form of proteins is not suitable for the proper binding of nucleic acid molecules corresponding to the primary amino acid sequence. At the beginning of life, however, only shorter peptide sequences could exist, and the long protein chains characteristic of evolved life, which are associated with the rigid secondary form, could not yet be present. The secondary form of shorter peptide molecules is much less rigid, and therefore the amino acid chain in its primary form, which allows nucleic acids to bind may have been present for a considerable time inside the microspheres.
Note: The longer a nucleic acid polymer chain the more fragile it is and the less likely it is to form spontaneously. These chains are fragile structures on their own, especially outside the protective micro sphere environment. The random, spontaneous formation and persistence of specific sequence nucleic acid polymers, required as an initial condition by the replicator hypothesis, which can also generate the formation of the associated suitable supporting and substrate structure for replication has a negligible probability, even under the long-standing conditions of the primordial soup that covers much of the Earth's surface.
Note: The hypothesis outlined can explain the natural selection of specific amino acids in living matter and the origin of the specific nucleic acid triplet code.
Note: Inside the microsphere, which by this time was practically a living cell, many other chemical reactions may have been taking place, such as those that broke down the sugars found in the primordial soup to provide energy for the chemical reactions. The life as a persistent stable structure hypothesis is discussing the most essential, necessity-driven pathways for the emergence of life, neglecting other important but non-core operational functions. The chemical reactions that support these non-core functions are not extrinsic to the most essential reactions, and can be well integrated into their functional environment, as the chemical reactions of evolved life clearly demonstrate it.
However, even inside the microspheres, the longer ribo-nucleic acid polymer chain is fragile and can break. If a microsphere grows and reproduces with a damaged ribo-nucleic acid polymer, the offspring of such a microsphere will be less vital and will break down sooner. Sooner or later, however, the nucleic acid polymer will surely be damaged, lose its function, and if it is not created again from the peptide functioning as a template, the microspheres will cease to be a stable structure.
However, the stability of such systems can be enhanced by another characteristic property of the polymer built from ribo-nucleic acid molecules conjugated to amino acids, in addition to their specific peptide generating function.
The already formed ribo-nucleic acid polymer sequence can bind not only to amino acids, but also to deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid molecules present in the primordial soup and thus also inside the microspheres.
Certain deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid molecules are able to form a deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid polymer molecule, a corresponding copy of the ribo-nucleic acid polymer chain by forming secondary chemical bonds to the ribo-nucleic acid molecule in one-by-one correspondence. We know this is possible, because we see such a process in the chemical mechanisms of life today. Today, this process is played out in reverse, usually with the polymer of deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid molecules providing the template for the ribo-nucleic acid molecules to polymerize. At the beginning of life, however, according to this hypothesis, the ribo-nucleic acid polymer that was necessarily present may have provided the template for deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid molecules to polymerize.
The deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid polymer molecule is a relatively stable molecule under the conditions of the primordial soup. Its stability is particularly enhanced by the ability of the polymer chain to provide one-to-one pattern-based binding of strictly complementary deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid molecules on its surface, which can also join together to form a complementary polymer under suitable conditions, and can form a double helix with the original chain.
The resulting deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid polymers therefore have a new, fundamental, special property: they can serve as a template for their own constituents, and are thus capable of self-replication. The way this process works is well known in the functioning of biological cells as we know it today.
Deoxy-ribo-nucleic acid molecules (DNA) in the double helix shape can form a particularly stable structure under the conditions of the primordial soup, but they can only perform the functions outlined above under the conditions inside the microspheres that allow them to form. The reason for the existence of DNA molecules (the replicators) is their function to help maintain the structure of the microspheres (cells), supporting the persistence of a stable structure.
The interdependent process of biological cell-based life, based on chemical reactions was inevitably completed with the formation of DNA molecules in the double helix form. The nucleic acid polymer can replicate itself in the environment in which it exists, while serving as a template for the entire molecular machinery. The process has resulted in a stable structure capable of self-replication in the right environment.
In the process outlined above, the hypothesis of the emergence of a stable structure of persistence has allowed us to arrive at the fundamental processes of biological life on Earth through successive necessary steps. The fundamental process can be supported in various ways by numerous molecules and interactions of those molecules, acting as necessary supporting building blocks. However, a stable structure capable of self-replication that shapes the functioning of complex biological life has formed with the fundamental processes discussed.
The structure is able to grow by metabolic exchange with the environment and reproduce by growth. During reproduction, those structures can be persistently stable structures where the underlying processes remain functional, i.e. where the structure copies itself during reproduction.
The incorporation of a self-replicating molecule into the process is the fulfilling step of the development of a persistently stable structure. Once the complex structure of life is established, the functioning of the structure can be seen as a system for the replication of DNA, replication of genes, i.e. biological life is a machinery for the replicator's reproduction. This view, however, ignores the process of the formation of the machinery, because it is unable to interpret the process of the formation of the system in terms of successive steps of necessity and consequence.
In reality, the replicator is not the foundation of life, but the final stage in the formation of a stable structure that endures. It is possible to look at a functioning system in such a way that the replicators spread in the process, especially those which produce the most successful offspring. An additional problem with emphasizing the replicator in this way is that change is a fundamental and necessary feature of the replicator, so it is even difficult to interpret which replicator has actually been propagated. We might say that it's always the one that's successful, but that approach misses the profound essence of the system.
The replicator is a component of a complex process, which may be viewed from a selected, specific perspective, and this perspective can be considered as essential, but such a perspective only highlights a component of a complex process without addressing the underlying essence.
To illustrate the situation, for example, it is natural that the book that most people read is the one that is printed the most, but why many people read a book is a feature of the whole system, not an exclusive feature of the book. The book contains information about the system, which is obviously an important element of the system as a whole, but is in itself only a series of letters, having meaning only in conjunction with the system as a whole. It is possible to attribute a specific special function to the book, but this is not the right approach. It is better to seek and understand the characteristics of the functioning of the whole complex system of which the book is a component.
The essence of a living system is the formation, maintenance and reproduction of a persistent stable structure, of which the replicator is a functional component.
The change of the system, the integrated diversity is not a mandatory feature of an established stable structure. However, the emergence of a persistently stable structure is the result of a process that takes place in a state of non-equilibrium, and therefore a necessarily changing environment. Under these conditions, a structure can only be a persistent structure if change is an integrated feature of the system. In this case, persistence does not refer to the rigidity of the structure, but rather refers to the flexibility of the structure in the changing environment.
A self-replicating molecule that can serve as a template for a system of molecules that form the persistent structure is the best instrument to ensure the variability of the structure, because by the nature of its function, it also has the property that its change can result in a change of the whole structure.
We now know that the quantum mechanical laws of the atoms that make up nucleic acid molecules and the quantum nature of the bonds between those atoms result in random but inevitable changes in the nucleic acid polymer during replication, whereby, not only incidentally, but by a strictly defined chance and randomness, the replica of the nucleic acid polymer necessarily will not be the exact complement of the original. Because of this characteristic of the self-replicating molecule, the required fundamental change is an inherent property of the system, not an imperfection of function.
Replication of the molecule that is the template of the system is fundamentally imperfect, and the change can affect the functioning of the complex structure as a whole. The structure altered by the change in the replicator, if it remains stable and capable of replication, will continue to inherit the change and different forms of persistently stable structures may evolve.
Among these stable structures, there may be some that can reproduce in environments other than the original. If such an environment exists in the vicinity of the original environment, or if the original environment is changed in this way, the changed structure will also reproduce in the new environment. The process of spontaneous alteration of DNA is a fundamental form of biological evolution, alongside the horizontal gene transfer that can carry and alter longer sequences of information.
The persistently stable structure, what the hypothesis calls life, moves with the help of evolution into newer and newer environments to function as a persistently stable structure. The consequence of this process is that life emerges and spreads in all environments where its inherently changing structure can persist.
The organization of living matter, the formation of life, is continuous, it proceeds into new and new arenas. The microspheres of the primordial soup morph into biological cells we know today, because such morphing maintains the persistently stable structure.
Evolution may also lead to the formation of cells that are interconnected to create persistently stable structure capable of reproduction. The evolution of interconnected cells can continue in such a way that functional differences and division of tasks develop between the interconnected cells, if they can form a stable structure in this way. When interconnected cells differentiate to form a stable structure, we can interpret this process as the differentiation allowing the replicating molecule - which provides a template for the whole system to build - to replicate successfully, but this view does not capture the essence of the system. The essence is the formation and preservation of a stable structure over time, not the replication of the replicator molecule in a suitable carrier medium.
The complexity of a living system can increase through evolution, even though the increase in the complexity of living systems is not a necessary consequence of the requirement to form a persistently stable structure. The increase in complexity of a system is due to the property of the nucleic acid polymer that provides the template for the system. That molecule is not fixed in length, is able to grow, and thus can carry more and more information about the formation and function of the whole system. The increase of information in the molecular chain enables the increase in the complexity of the structure built.
The living matter, the formation of a persistently stable structure, due to the presence of a replicator capable of storing increasing amounts of information about the system can continue to increase the complexity of the whole structure as the growing replicator make possible to more and more differentiated cells to connect in increasingly complex ways, if they can form a persistently stable architecture in this way.
This process can also be seen as some cells giving up certain functions to other cells, and thus behaving in an apparently self-sacrificing way to help the replicator to replicate. There seems to be only a difference of perspective between the hypothesis that sees the essence of life as a persistently stable structure and the replicator hypothesis. But the two hypotheses are fundamentally different.
The replicator hypothesis is a replicator-based interpretation of life, which sees replication of the replicator as the goal of the system, and sees life as a vehicle for the propagation of the replicator. The hypothesis that sees the essence of life in the persistently stable structure does not attribute a privileged, distinct, prominent role to the replicator that provides the template and the recipe for the structure of life.
The perspective of the persistently stable structure hypothesis can not only interpret the emergence of self-sacrificial behavior in the evolutionary process (self-sacrificial behavior is one possible way for the blind biological evolution to build a persistently stable structure based on random changes), but can also explain not only the evolution of life, but also its emergence through necessary and consequential steps.
The hypothesis of life as a stable and enduring structure can interpret not only the formation and evolution of biological cells and complex organisms, but also the formation and evolution of societies of organisms.
Societies made up of living individual units can be created by evolution and can persist if they can form a stable structure in the existing environment. If the structure of the individuals building the society (which is usually based on the division of tasks and sometimes involves individual self-sacrifice by evolution) is a stable structure, the system is viable and will persist. The point is that the goal is not the spreading of the replicator, but the persistence of the structure.
The system of life uses variation to create persistently stable structures, which grow and reproduce in the changing environment by using the resources present. The process of life, while using resources to maintain persistently stable structure, necessarily leads to the integration of interrelated life forms which compete and interact with each other, to form persistently stable structure, and results in the formation of an increasingly complex system, which we call biosphere.
The biosphere is the complex system of life, the persistently stable structure on a planetary scale. The biosphere is life itself; it is living matter. The parts of the biosphere by themselves do not form a persistently stable structure, they cannot exist in themselves.
Environmental change causes the biosphere to change, to transform in such a way that the biosphere, the living matter, becomes altered by the diversity integrated into the system to form a stable structure if the environmental conditions in general allow it. The biosphere conquers all places suitable for life. With the emergence of a planetary-scale biosphere, living matter appears to have reached its limits of growth and reproduction.
The spread of life, the spread of living matter between planets suitable for life, is possible, but the conditions of space between planets are the determining limit to this propagation. Living matter is a persistently stable structure in a non-equilibrium environment. The form of life adapted to a particular planet is generally incapable of forming a stable structure in conditions of space. It is possible for some components of living matter to survive space travel in an inactive state without damage, and to reach other planets (panspermia theory), but the more complex the component, the less likely the conditions on another planet are to be such, that a living system can be formed from the component of life that has undergone travel.
This is particularly true for the transfer of a replicator. This improbability is exactly the same improbability as one of the major problems of the replicator hypothesis mentioned earlier, the spontaneous emergence of the replicator and the formation of a suitable hosting carrier environment by the replicator in its natural surroundings. The process is far more improbable than the necessary and consequential series of steps in the natural emergence of life outlined in the persistent stable structure hypothesis.
But evolution can overcome planetary limitations. By the inherent systemic property of diversity of life, though not necessarily, not as a natural consequence, a new element can appear through evolution in the structure of life, the intelligent consciousness. With intelligent consciousness, evolution can operate in a new form. With the emergence of the intelligent component, intelligent evolution can proceed.
Up until this point, the assembly of living matter has been based on the pattern of the sequence of the nucleic acid polymer molecule that provides the recipe for organization. The emergence and persistence of the structure of societies of intelligent individuals as living organisms is based not only on genes, but also on the pattern of learned social customs, rules and laws that influence the behavior of individuals and that are passed on between members of the society.
The replicator hypothesis calls these patterns memes. Like genes, the replicator hypothesis focuses on these memes in the case of intelligent societies, and sees the spread of memes as the purpose of society's existence. According to the meme theory, replicating memes are formed in society, which, if they are suitable, spread throughout the community and change and shape the society.
The meme extension of the replicator hypothesis can interpret many of the phenomena that determine the life of a society of intelligent individuals. It can apparently interpret the processes that take place in society and, through them, the changes in society. However, the meme hypothesis cannot explain the direction of change in society on the basis of necessity. The meme hypothesis is unable to see and unable to predict future changes.
Because usually the changes creating diversity in the process of evolution are random, cannot be predicted, hence evolution of the society has no direction. However, if the hypothesis of life as a persistent stable structure is a suitable interpretation of living matter, it can be used not only to interpret changes in society, but also to model and predict how certain changes will generate changes in society. According to the theory, society changes in such a possible direction that it can maintain its stable structure - or else it will fall apart and possibly cease to exist.
As living matter operates, societies of living beings are created, which behave as living organisms. Living matter is characterized by growth and reproduction. Society as a living organism works in a similar way. It grows and reproduces if it can form a persistently stable structure, while it changes if in this way the stable structure is maintained in the environment.
Evolution also shapes societies of intelligent individuals through changes in genes and memes, which are the templates for the organization of living matter. In this evolution, not as an inherently necessary consequence, but if it appears, it will qualitatively differently alter the maintainability of the living structure, the information content of memes is being stored independently of the personal existence of the individuals that form the society. The writing emerges.
The appearance of writing allows the information accumulated in memes to grow indefinitely. Before the use of writing, the information accumulated in memes was stored only in the brains, one of the organs that enables intelligent individuals to function, in a limited capacity corresponding to the complexity of the actual brain. With the emergence of writing, the capacity of information stored in memes becomes unlimited.
Just as the increase in the length of DNA has allowed an increase in the amount of information stored, and led to an increase in complexity of living structures, the emergence of writing allows a qualitatively new, unlimited increase in the complexity of intelligent societies.
And there is another aspect related to intelligent species concerning the evolution of life. Until the emergence of intelligence, evolution was governed by chance, which determined how DNA changed. This exclusivity changes with the emergence of the intelligent species. Intelligence can replace the random nature of evolution with intelligent design. Evolution is still determined by the environment, but intelligent design and unlimited information capacity set the society of intelligent individuals on a qualitatively new trajectory of evolution, resulting in exponentially increase of complexity.
With these capabilities, the living organism of a society of intelligent individuals has the ability to maintain its persistently stable structure under any environmental conditions. If a society with such capabilities can exist for a sufficient period of time, it will be able to maintain its structure in the conditions of space, and thus life will overcome the limitations of the planet that gave rise to it.
Life, the persistently stable structure, can thus become unlimited in extension. The growth and reproduction of such life is limited only by the possibilities of the whole universe. Sooner or later life will reach this stage. Whether life on Earth will become a member of this galactic society depends only on us, humans, and the life that emerges from us depends on the evolution of the human-built society.
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