From Geochemical Persistence to Biological Autonomy: A Functional-Internalization Theory of the Origin of Life

This monograph develops a functional-internalization theory of the origin of life. It argues that abiogenesis is best understood not as the sudden appearance of a complete modern biological subsystem, but as a progressive developmental process in which persistence-supporting functions were initially supplied by environmental structures and gradually transferred into increasingly reproducible molecular control. The framework distinguishes function from implementation and traces two partly independent trajectories: the refinement of structural information into hereditary and eventually representational information, and the progressive internalization of functions such as confinement, catalysis, energetic coupling, component synthesis, and reproduction. These trajectories converge through genetic capture, after which coding, specialization, and recursive informational control support increasing biological autonomy. The theory integrates work from geochemistry, systems chemistry, protocell research, pre-genetic evolution, informational theory, and LUCA reconstruction into a common developmental architecture. It also derives discriminating experimental and comparative tests, emphasizing transitions in the locus of functional control, cumulative pre-genetic evolution, genetic capture, and the predicted mismatch in age among functions, physical implementations, interaction constraints, and hereditary representations.