how was life created from nonliving things?

Question

and does this mean we can recreate this process to manipulate life into whatever we want?

In: 186

Answer 1

You fall into the deep unknown, a question that has consumed the thoughts of pretty well everyone at some point, and some of us think about it a lot.

The biggest problem is really and truly understanding the difference between “life” and “not-life”. Both life and not-life are basically chemical reactions, mechanistically (as the way they work in detail). Life does not “exist” solely because of the functions of life, is the idea. Making the same chemical processes occur does not make a thing come to life, as far as we can tell. Or are the operations of systems, even such as the earth system (“Gaia”), a “type” of life and we fail to recognize it?

So, what is it about the chemical systems that makes it self-perpetuating, driven to self-preserve (whatever that actually means), and (at some level or other) possess awareness of self even if only in a very weak and tiny way?

The answer is that we do not know.

The chemistry aspect is not all that problematic in basic idea although not all that easy to make happen in practice. There are numerous ways that chemistry can result in the components required for life. We find the “building blocks” of life in some of the most surprising places. The stuff needed for life as we know it is made by chemical reactions, not-life reactions, in particular circumstances. Those circumstances may not be common but they do exist, some a lot more than others. Life-needed chemicals get made without life, at least in some places at some times. This does not lead directly to life though.

It is the step from inorganic (not-life) chemistry to biological activity (“life”) that is the great unknown.

We don’t actually know what life is, is the basic point. We understand the mechanics, but not the “spark”. Every living human (if not other animals) has some belief as to what that “spark” is. It has never been observed directly though, at least not verifiably.

Perhaps it is truly an emergent property, not something that exists except when the total system combines and then makes something that is more than the sum of the parts.

The virus issue is actually proof of the point. Viruses are alive but not really. They are in that midpoint between life and not-life. Sort of alive, but not really, depending on how you wish to define life.