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
Not an expert but the Wikipedia on it is quite good on the various schools of thought.

Edit - I just lost 20 mins reading the start of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world which is interesting on that stuff