zlacker

>>qqqqqu+(OP)
Abiogenesis. I understand that this is not considered understood but I'd be interested in hearing a qualified scientist talk about how we get from "dumb" matter to self-replicating, goal-driven matter. The closest I've ever heard anyone get (in a personal conversation) is that chemistry is about transformation, so "dumb" matter isn't really dumb in the sense that it's static. Still lots of hand waving to get from baking soda and vinegar volcanoes to me typing this question, however.

What's the playing field look like for proto-life? How "smart" are the simplest molecular interactions? What does almost-replication look like? Could we use a computational model for this?

Not sure how much of this is known, but I'd love to hear an expert paint a picture of their mental model of the subject.

>>abioge+WY
Did you read Nick Lane's "The Vital Question: Why Is Life The Way It Is?" It's all about this and it's great. Also take a look at https://www.quantamagazine.org/first-support-for-a-physics-t...

>>outlac+X11
On Nick Lane's "The Vital Question":

I gifted myself The Vital Question in 2015 December. While Lane writes effectively without any mind-numbing jargon, the book still has quite a bit of technical chemistry (understandably). After the excellent first 80 pages, it took me a lot more will power to plough through. (I paused at page 112 to get back later.)

Once when I was reading the book on a plane, a seasoned biologist happened to be sitting next to me. When I told that it's the first book of Nick Lane that I picked up, he said: "I'd rather suggest you to pick up Laine's other book, Life Ascending, and only then get back to The Vital Question."

PS: FWIW, I've previously mentioned the above in an older thread, where an ex-biochemist chimed in to confirm the above advice: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18714115