In this interview, Dwarkesh chats with Nick Lane, an evolutionary biochemist, about his work on reconceptualizing life's history through the lens of energy flow. Lane discusses the significance of eukaryotes, the origins of life in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and the continuity between Earth's geochemistry and early life forms. They explore the inevitability of life on wet, rocky planets, the bottleneck in the evolution of complex life, and the role of mitochondria in the development of large genomes and sexes. Lane also touches on the hard problem of consciousness and the potential link between feelings, metabolism, and electromagnetic fields, emphasizing the importance of observation, experimentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration in unraveling the mysteries of life's origins and nature.
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