Cogprints

Self-other organization: Why early life did not evolve through natural selection

Gabora, Dr. Liane M. (2006) Self-other organization: Why early life did not evolve through natural selection. [Journal (Paginated)]

Full text available as:

[img] HTML
99Kb

Abstract

The improbability of a spontaneously generated self-assembling molecule has suggested that life began with a set of simpler, collectively replicating elements, such as an enclosed autocatalytic set of polymers (or protocell). Since replication occurs without a self-assembly code, acquired characteristics are inherited. Moreover, there is no strict distinction between alive and dead; one can only infer that a protocell was alive if it replicates. These features of early life render natural selection inapplicable to the description of its change-of-state because they defy its underlying assumptions. Moreover, natural selection describes only randomly generated novelty; it cannot describe the emergence of form at the interface between organism and environment. Self-organization is also inadequate because it is restricted to interactions amongst parts; it too cannot account for context-driven change. A modified version of selection theory or self-organization would not work because the description of change-of-state through interaction with an incompletely specified context has a completely different mathematical structure, i.e. entails a non-Kolmogorovian probability model. It is proposed that the evolution of early life is appropriately described as lineage transformation through context-driven actualization of potential (CAP), with self-organized change-of-state being a special case of no contextual influence, and competitive exclusion of less fit individuals through a selection-like process possibly (but not necessarily) playing a secondary role. It is argued that natural selection played an important role in evolution only after genetically mediated replication was established.

Item Type:Journal (Paginated)
Keywords:autocatalysis, acquired characteristics, natural selection, protocell, self-replicating automaton, origin of life
Subjects:Biology > Evolution
Biology > Theoretical Biology
ID Code:5583
Deposited By: Gabora, Dr. Liane
Deposited On:07 Jun 2007
Last Modified:11 Mar 2011 08:56

References in Article

Select the SEEK icon to attempt to find the referenced article. If it does not appear to be in cogprints you will be forwarded to the paracite service. Poorly formated references will probably not work.

Accardi, L., Fedullo A., 1982. On the statistical meaning of complex numbers in quantum mechanics. Nuovo Cimento, 34(7), 161-172.

Aerts, D., 1982. Example of a macroscopical situation that violates Bell inequalities, Lettere al Nuovo Cimento, 34, 107-111. [pdf]

Aerts, D., 1983. Classical theories and nonclassical theories as a special case of a more general theory. J. Math. Phys., 24, 2441-2454.

Aerts, D., 1986. A possible explanation for the probabilities of quantum mechanics. J. Math. Phys., 27, 202-210. [pdf]

Aerts, D., 1991. A mechanistic classical laboratory situation violating the Bell inequalities with 2\sqrt(2), exactly ‘in the same way’ as its violations by the EPR experiments. Helvetica Physica Acta, 64D, 1-23. [pdf]

Aerts, D. 1993. Quantum structures due to fluctuations of the measurement situations. Int. J. Theor. Phys., 32, 2207–2220. [pdf]

Aerts, D., 1994. Quantum structures, separated physical entities and probability. Found. Phys., 24, 1227-1259. [pdf]

Aerts, D., Aerts, S., 1997. The hidden measurement formalism: quantum mechanics as a consequence of fluctuations on the measurement, in: Ferrero, M., van der Merwe, A. (Eds.), Fundamental Problems in Quantum Physics II, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht. [pdf]

Aerts, D., Aerts, S., Broekaert, J., Gabora, L., 2000. The violation of Bell inequalities in the macroworld. Found. Phys., 30, 1387–1414. [quant-ph/0007044]] [pdf]

Aerts, D. Durt, T. 1994. Quantum, classical, and intermediate, an illustrative example. Found. Phys., 24, 1353-1368. [pdf]

Bollobas, B., 2001. Random graphs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Bollobas, B., Rasmussen, S., 1989. First cycles in random directed graph processes. Descrete Math, 75(1-3), 55-68.

Cohen, J. E. 1988. Threshold phenomena in random structures. Descrete Appl. Math, 75, 55-68.

De Duve, C., 1995. Vital Dust: The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth. Basic, New York.

Dyson, F., 1982. A model for the origin of life. J. Mol. Evol. 18, 344-350.

Dyson, F., 1985. Origins of Life, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Eigen, M., 1971. Self-organization of matter and the evolution of macromolecules. Naturwissenschaften, 58, 465-523.

Eigen, M., 1992. Steps Towards Life: A Perspective on Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Deacon, T.W. Self-reproduction and natural selection from reciprocally linked self-organizing processes, submitted.

Deamer, D. W., Barchfeld, G. L., 1982. Encapsulation of macromolecules by lipid vesicles under simulated prebiotic conditions. J. Mol. Evol. 18, 203-206.

Dyson, F., 1982. A model for the origin of life. J. Mol. Evol., 18, 344-350.

Dyson, F. 1985/1999. Origins of Life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Erdös, P., Rényi, A., 1960. On the evolution of random graphs. Magyar. Tud. Acad. Mat. Kut. Int. Közl 5, 17-61.

Fisher, R. A. (1930). The genetical theory of natural selection. Clarendon: Oxford University Press.

Fox, S. W. 1988. The Emergence of Life. Basic Books, New York.

Fox, S. W., Dose, K., 1977. Molecular Evolution and the Origin of Life, Revised ed. Marcel Dekker, New York.

Fry, I., 2000. The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick NJ.

Foulis, D., Randall, C. 1981. What are quantum logics and what ought they to be?, in E. Beltrametti and B. van Fraassen (eds.), Current Issues in Quantum Logic, 35, Plenum, New York.

Foulis, D., Piron, C., Randall, C. 1983. Realism, operationalism and quantum mechanics. Found. Phys., 13(813), 813-841.

Gabora, L. 2004. Ideas are not replicators but minds are. Biol. & Phil. 19(1), 127-143. [pdf]

Gabora, L., 2005. Creative thought as a non-Darwinian evolutionary process. J. Cre. Beh. 39(4), 65-87. [nlin.AO/0411057]

Gabora, L., Aerts, D., 2005. Evolution as context-driven actualization of potential: Toward an interdisciplinary theory of change of state. Interdisc. Sci. Rev. 30(1), 69-88. [nlin.AO/0510077] [pdf]

Gilbert, W., 1986. The RNA world. Nature 319, 618.

Haldane, J. S., 1929. The Sciences and Philosophy. Doubleday, Garden City.

Haldane, J. B. S. (1932). The causes of evolution. New York: Longman.

Hargreaves, W. R., Mulvihill, S., J., Deamer, D., W., 1977. Synthesis of phospholipids and membranes in prebiotic conditions. Nature 266, 78-80.

Holland, J., 1975. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Hordijk, W. Steel, M., 2004. Detecting autocatalytic, self-sustaining sets in chemical reaction systems. J. Theor. Biol. 227(4), 451–461.

Hull, D.L., Langman, R.E., Glenn, S.S., 2001. A general account of selection: Biology, immunology and behavior. Beh. Brain Sci., 24(3), 511–28.

Jauch, J. 1968. Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.

Joyce, G. F. 1989. RNA evolution and the origin of life. Nature 338, 217-224.

Kauffman, S., 1986. Autocatalytic sets of proteins. J. Theor. Biol. 119, 1-24.

Kauffman, S., 1993. Origins of Order: Self-Organization and Selection in Evolution. Oxford University Press, New York.

Kauffman, S. A., 1995. At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. Oxford University Press, New York.

Kauffman, S. A., 2000. Investigations. Oxford University Press, New York.

Kolmogorov, A. N., 1933. Grundbegriffe der Wahrscheinlichkeitrechnung, in Ergebnisse der Mathematik, Berlin.

Lifson, S. 1997. On the crucial stages in the origin of animate matter. J. Mol. Evol. 44, 1-8.

Mackey, G. 1963. Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, John Benjamin, Reading, MA.

Maynard Smith, J., Szathmary, E. 1995. The Major Transitions in Evolution. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Miller, S. L., 1953. A production of amino acids under possible primitive earth conditions. Science 117, 528-529.

Morowitz, H. J., 2002. The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex. Oxford University Press, New York.

Mossel, E., Steel, M., 2005. Random biochemical networks: The probability of self-sustaining autocatalysis. J. Theor. Biol. 233, 327-336.

Oparin, A. I. 1929/1936. The Origin of Life. Translation of the 1929 Russian publication by S. Morgulis. Macmillan, New York.

Oparin, A. I., 1957. The Origin of Life on Earth. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh.

Piron, C., 1976. Foundations of Quantum Physics, W.A. Benjamin, Reading, MA.

Piron, C. 1989. Recent developments in quantum mechanics. Helv. Phys. Acta, 62, 439-468.

Piron, C. 1990. Mecanique Quantique: Bases et Applications, Press Polytechnique de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.

Randall, C. Foulis, D. 1978. The operational approach to quantum mechanics. In C. Hooker (ed.), Physical Theories as Logico-Operational Structures, 167, Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Pitowsky, I., 1989. Quantum probability—Quantum logic: Lecture notes in physics 321, Springer, Berlin.

Randall, C., Foulis, D., 1976. A mathematical setting for inductive reasoning. In: C. Hooker (Ed.) Foundations of probability theory, statistical inference, and statistical theories of science III, Reidel.

Rosen, R., 1991. Life Itself: A Comprehensive inquiry into the Nature, Origin, and Fabrication of Life. Columbia University Press, New York.

Steel, M., 2000. The emergence of a self-catalyzing structure in abstract origin-of-life models. Appl. Math. Lett. 3, 91-95.

Szathmary, E., Maynard-Smith, J. 1997. From replicators to reproducers: The first major transitions leading to life. J. Theor. Biol. 187, 555-571.

Von Neumann, J., 1966. The Theory of Self-Reproducing Automata. University of Illinois Press, Chicago.

Wright, S. (1931). Evolution in Mendelian populations. Genetics, 16, 97-159.

Wächtershäuser, G., 1992. Groundwork for an evolutionary biochemistry: the iron-sulfur world. Prog. Biophys. Molec. Biol. 58, 85-201.

Weber, B. H., 1998. Emergence of life and biological selection from the perspective of complex systems dynamics. In: G. van de Vijver, S. N. Salthe, and M. Delpos (Eds.) Evolutionary Systems: Biological and Epistemological Perspectives on Selection and Self-Organization. Kluwer, Dordrecht.

Weber, B. H., 2000. Closure in the emergence and evolution of life: Multiple discourses or one? In: J. L. R. Chandler & G. Van de Vijver (Eds.) Closure: Emergent Organizations and their Dynamics, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 901, pp. 132-138.

Wilce, A., 2003. Quantum logic and probability theory. In: E. N. Zalta (Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2003 Edition).

Williams, R. J. P., Frausto da Silva, J. J. R., 1999. Bringing Chemistry to Life: From Matter to Man. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Williams, R. J. P., Frausto da Silva, J. J. R., 2002. The systems approach to evolution. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 297, 689-699.

Williams, R. J. P., Frausto da Silva, J. J. R., 2003. Evolution was chemically constrained. J. Theor. Biol. 220, 323-343.

Metadata

Repository Staff Only: item control page

Cogprints is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.