Re: Autocatalytic sets: less worse than RNA World?

On 12/01/2025 10:19 pm, MarkE wrote:

Matt Powner: I don’t think the idea of autocatalytic sets has been marginalized, but I don’t know if it’s necessary. My understanding of the concept is that autocatalytic sets can in essence themselves evolve purely through change in chemical composition. I’m not sure that’s been demonstrated in a relevant system that doesn’t rapidly degenerate, and I’m not sure that’s the essential step to building what we know as a modern cell. However, if we actually found that autocatalytic

...sets work, this could be a lynchpin to understanding origin of life.
(Correction of an accidental but significant copy-paste truncation)