and does this mean we can recreate this process to manipulate life into whatever we want?
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One theory is that life was an inevitability given a random chance of spontanious genesis and an infinite amount of time and resources. That is, eventually molecules will “whoops” fall into each other in such a way that they self replicate in ever increasingly complex ways. I’m not very convinced by this one.
[Another theory](https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-new-thermodynamics-theory-of-the-origin-of-life-20140122/) is that life is an inevitability given that the universe wants to increase in entropy as efficiently as possible, and life by definition is an experimental process to find the most efficient way possible to spread out energy. That is, capture useful energy (like the chemical energy in sugar) and use it as efficiently as possible until it is transformed into less usable states of energy (like waste heat produced by your muscles).
Essentially, life is the universe’s experimental technique to turn a few high energy photons into many low energy photons as efficiently as possible. Jeremy England says “If you start with a random clump of atoms and shine a light at it for long enough, it should not be such a surprise to return and find a plant”. A plant is much better able to absorb energy and route it through itself than a random clump of carbon atoms. It will die and be replaced by better plants if it doesn’t.
Understanding the genesis of life is not very useful in terms of guiding life to be whatever we want. Better to take the processes that already exist and bend them to our wills than try to reinvent biology. It is much easier to make an apple pie from apples than it is to make apples from scratch.
Here’s a [Veritasium](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxL2HoqLbyA&ab_channel=Veritasium) that suggests the origin and purpose of life is entropy.
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