Life as a Self-Constructing System | Stuart Kauffman

Life is defined not by template-replicating molecules like DNA or RNA, but by the union of catalytic and constraint closure within a non-equilibrium chemical system. In this framework, life consists of autocatalytic sets where molecules catalyze the reactions that construct the same set of molecules, effectively performing thermodynamic work to maintain themselves. This self-constructing architecture renders the traditional software-hardware distinction in biology obsolete, suggesting that life is a dynamical system rather than a set of encoded instructions. By integrating these concepts with the Aristotelian notion of "form," life emerges as an interwoven union of self-constructing modules. This perspective shifts the focus of evolution from purely genetic sequences to the co-evolution of these structural modules, providing a novel, testable approach to understanding the origins and maintenance of biological systems.