Title: Self-Organization and The Origins of Life: The Managed-Metabolism Hypothesis,
Abstract: The managed-metabolism hypothesis suggests that a cooperation barrier must be
overcome if self-producing chemical organizations are to transition from
non-life to life. This barrier prevents un-managed, self-organizing,
autocatalytic networks of molecular species from individuating into complex,
cooperative organizations. The barrier arises because molecular species that
could otherwise make significant cooperative contributions to the success of an
organization will often not be supported within the organization, and because
side reactions and other free-riding processes will undermine cooperation. As a
result, the barrier seriously limits the possibility space that can be explored
by un-managed organizations, impeding individuation, complex functionality and
the transition to life. The barrier can be overcome comprehensively by
appropriate management which implements a system of evolvable constraints. The
constraints support beneficial co-operators and suppress free riders. In this
way management can manipulate the chemical processes of an autocatalytic
organization, producing novel processes that serve the interests of the
organization as a whole and that could not arise and persist spontaneously in
an un-managed chemical organization. Management self-organizes because it is
able to capture some of the benefits that are produced when its management of
an autocatalytic organization promotes beneficial cooperation. Selection
therefore favours the emergence of managers that take over and manage chemical
organizations so as to overcome the cooperation barrier. The managed-metabolism
hypothesis shows that if management is to overcome the cooperation barrier
comprehensively, its interventions must be digitally coded. In this way, the
hypothesis accounts for the two-tiered structure of all living cells in which a
digitally-coded genetic apparatus manages an analogically-informed metabolism.