Life Origin

A Scientific Approach

Edited for the Non-Scientist

#5 Could life exist without steering controls (as opposed to indifferent constraints)?  

Constraints consist of restrictions or limitations to possibilities caused by initial (starting) conditions, or by the regularities of nature described by physical law.1  Constraints themselves play no role in steering, controlling or regulating events to achieve formal function.1  Constraints are blind to formalisms.2-4  Constraints can constitute barricades and bottlenecks for agent-pursued goals, however.  But constraints can never steer reactions towards any metabolic goal in cells.5-12

 

Controls, however, purposefully steer events toward the goal of formal function and pragmatic success.  Controls optimize and regulate sophisticated function.12-15  Controls are needed to program, organize and select for potential usefulness.16-22  Controls alone generate sophisticated function.

 

      Biochemical pathways are carefully steered towards needed end-products5,7,23-26 and that requires controls, not mere constraints.

 

      Catalysis by enzymes is very specific.27-29  Reactions are accelerated toward metabolic goals.  That’s no accident.  Controls are needed to steer and regulate reaction chains.11,21,22,25,30-34  Catalysis is a form of control that greatly speeds up the processes necessary for life.  Life requires controls, not just constraints.

 

 

1.             Abel DL. Constraints vs. Controls:  Progressing from description to prescription in systems theory. Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal. 2010;4:14-27 Open Access at  http://benthamopen.com/contents/pdf/TOCSJ/TOCSJ-14-14.pdf [Last accessed: April, 2016]  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

2.             Abel DL. The Cybernetic Cut [Scirus SciTopic Page]. 2008; http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel [Last accessed: July, 2016].

3.             Abel DL. The ‘Cybernetic Cut’: Progressing from Description to Prescription in Systems Theory. The Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal. 2008;2:252-262 Open Access  at http://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOCSJ-252-252  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel  [Last accessed July, 2016]

4.             Abel DL. The Cybernetic Cut and Configurable Switch (CS) Bridge. In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press--Academic, Biol. Res. Div.; 2011:55-74  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

5.             Abel DL. Is Life Reducible to Complexity? In: Palyi G, Zucchi C, Caglioti L, eds. Fundamentals of Life. Paris: Elsevier; 2002:57-72.

6.             Abel DL. Life origin: The role of complexity at the edge of chaos.  Lecture given at the Headquarters of the National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, Jerry Chandler and Kay Peg, Chairmen. 2006; http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel  Power Point slides and speaker notes downloadable.

7.             Abel DL. Complexity, self-organization, and emergence at the edge of chaos in life-origin models. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 2007;93(4):1-20 http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel [Last accessed: March, 2015].

8.             Abel DL. The capabilities of chaos and complexity. Society for Chaos Theory: Society for Complexity in Psychology and the Life Sciences; Aug 8-10, 2008; International Conference at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

9.             Abel DL. The capabilities of chaos and complexity. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2009;10(Special Issue on Life Origin):247-291 Open access at http://mdpi.com/1422-0067/1410/1421/1247  [last accessed: March, 2015] Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

10.          Abel DL. The Law of Physicodynamic Incompleteness [Scirus SciTopics Page]. 2010; http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel [Last accessed: March, 2015].

11.          Abel DL. The Formalism > Physicality (F > P) Principle. In: Abel DL, ed. In the First Gene: The birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, New York: Ed. LongView Press-Academic, 2011: Biological Research Division; 2011:447-492  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

12.          Abel DL. The three fundamental categories of reality. In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press-Academic: Biolog. Res. Div.; 2011:19-54  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

13.          Abel DL. What is ProtoBioCybernetics? In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press-Academic: Biolog. Res. Div.; 2011:1-18  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

14.          Abel DL. What utility does order, pattern or complexity prescribe? In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press--Academic, Biol. Res. Div.; 2011:75-116  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

15.          Abel DL. The Genetic Selection (GS) Principle. In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press--Academic; 2011:161-188  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

16.          Abel DL. Linear Digital Material Symbol Systems (MSS). In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press--Academic, Biol. Res. Div.; 2011:135-160  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

17.          Abel DL. The Birth of Protocells. In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: LongView Press--Academic, Biol. Res. Div.; 2011:189-230  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

18.          Abel DL. Examining specific life-origin models for plausibility. In: Abel DL, ed. The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control: LongView Press Academic; 2011:231-272  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

19.          Abel DL, ed The First Gene: The Birth of Programming, Messaging and Formal Control. New York, N.Y.: Longview Press Academic; 2011.

20.          Abel DL. Moving 'far from equilibrium' in a prebitoic environment: The role of Maxwell’s Demon in life origin. In: Seckbach J, Gordon R, eds. Genesis - In the Beginning: Precursors of Life, Chemical Models and Early Biological Evolution. Dordrecht: Springer; 2012:219-236  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

21.          Abel DL. Is life unique? Life. 2012;2(1):106-134  Open access at  http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/2072/2071/2106  [Last accessed July, 2016]  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

22.          Abel DL. Primordial Prescription:  The Most Plaguing Problem of Life Origin Science   New York, N. Y.: LongView Press Academic; 2015.

23.          Abel DL. To what degree can we reduce "life" without "loss of life"? In: Palyi G, Caglioti L, Zucchi C, eds. Workshop on Life: a satellite meeting before the Millenial World Meeting of University Professors. Vol Book of Abstracts. Modena, Italy: University of Modena; 2000:4.

24.          Abel DL. The GS (Genetic Selection) Principle. Frontiers in Bioscience. 2009;14(January 1):2959-2969 Open access at https://www.bioscience.org/2009/v2914/af/3426/fulltext.htm [Last Accessed May, 2015] Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

25.          Abel DL. The biosemiosis of prescriptive information. Semiotica. 2009;2009(174):1-19  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

26.          Abel DL. The Genetic Selection (GS) Principle [Scirus SciTopic Page]. 2009; http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel [Last accessed: March, 2015].

27.          Hordijk W, Kauffman SA, Steel M. Required levels of catalysis for emergence of autocatalytic sets in models of chemical reaction systems. Int J Mol Sci. 2011;12(5):3085-3101.

28.          Kamioka S, Ajami D, Rebek J, Jr. Autocatalysis and organocatalysis with synthetic structures. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. Jan 12 2010;107(2):541-544.

29.          Kamioka S, Ajami D, Rebek J. Autocatalysis and organocatalysis with synthetic structures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. December 17, 2009 2009:-.

30.          Abel DL. Prescriptive Information (PI) [Scirus SciTopic Page]. 2009; http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel [Last accessed: March, 2015].

31.          Abel DL, Trevors JT. Three subsets of sequence complexity and their relevance to biopolymeric information. Theoretical Biology and Medical Modeling. 2005;2:29-45.

32.          Abel DL, Trevors JT. More than metaphor: Genomes are objective sign systems. Journal of BioSemiotics. 2006;1(2):253-267  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

33.          Abel DL, Trevors JT. Self-Organization vs. Self-Ordering events in life-origin models. Physics of Life Reviews. 2006;3:211-228  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.

34.          Abel DL, Trevors JT. More than Metaphor: Genomes are Objective Sign Systems. In: Barbieri M, ed. BioSemiotic Research Trends. New York: Nova Science Publishers; 2007:1-15  Also available from http://lifeorigin.academia.edu/DrDavidLAbel.