Vesicles as Dissipative Systems: Reconsidering the Prebiotic World in the Spirit of Prigogine

Most origin-of-life models focus primarily on biochemical replication, RNA-world scenarios, or optimized protocellular systems. In contrast, this paper explores a physics-centered interpretation of prebiotic vesicles inspired by Ilya Prigogine’s theory of dissipative structures and systems far from equilibrium.The proposed framework treats fatty-acid vesicles not as passive containers for future biochemistry, but as active dissipative systems capable of continuously transforming one form of nonequilibrium into another. A hypothetical mechanism of photochemical osmolyte generation is considered, in which semiconductor nanoparticles embedded in vesicle membranes absorb photons, release energetic electrons or reactive states, and partially fragment membrane fatty acids into smaller osmotically active molecules.The resulting osmotic imbalance drives water influx, vesicle inflation, membrane tension, and competition for fatty acids from the surrounding environment or neighboring vesicles. Growth, division, rupture, and material recycling emerge as interconnected physical processes rather than biologically programmed behaviors.Unlike laboratory protocell experiments performed under highly optimized conditions, the prebiotic environment is interpreted here as a fluctuating nonequilibrium landscape shaped by day-night cycles, dilution events, temperature oscillations, material scarcity, and repeated structural collapse.The paper proposes that prebiotic evolution may have involved competition not between genetic systems, but between dissipative regimes capable of maintaining dynamic cycles of matter and energy transformation. In this interpretation, “physical life” precedes biochemical life and may be understood as the long-term postponement of thermodynamic equilibrium through continuous environmental energy dissipation