The Physical Law of Trial and Error and the Formation of Carbon-Based Life

Here, we present our theory of the Law of Trial and Error (LTE), which we believe to be a fundamental physical law governing the emergence of stable orders from randomness in chemical systems through the necessary and universal relationship between variation and selection. We predict it as key for carbon-based life to arise under conditions widely present on planets and moons, making ecosystems a regular physical phenomenon throughout the observable universe. We assume the LTE to be a general cornerstone within chemical relationships. For example, it also causes diagenetic mineral formation, crystallisation from solution and various autocatalytic reactions. When sufficient carbon, liquid water, energy and some further preconditions are given on a celestial body, it will, due to the potential of carbon atoms for taking near unlimited variable formations, trigger a virtually open-ended trial-and-error process, inexorably running in the direction of increased self-stabilisation. Whilst the core mechanism of self-stabilisation continues seamlessly into biological evolution, increasingly complex systems emerge, up to such known as organisms. Since the process is framed by further physical laws and chemical features, we suppose far-reaching convergences. We presume the process and its results to be characterised by levels of complexity that vastly exceed those of all other astronomical phenomena.