The Life Ramblings (No.1)

One of the few theories about life that I’ve been trying to write down over the past few months / years. Not as much a theory as a celebration of the beauties of life.

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Why reproduction was one of life’s greatest inventions:

1. There were a few molecules.

2. They reacted with one another, again and again, for millions of years.

3. They learnt to do things.

4. They were happy.

5. They learnt to do more things.

6. Not all of them stayed organised for long periods. Some of them got hit by waves / rocks / whatever, and disintegrated (read died), no longer able to “do things.” However, more accidents happened as time went by, and more molecule systems appeared.

7. One day, one of the molecule systems which could do things, accidentally broke in half (?).

8. At least one of the halves survived.

9. More of the pieces became larger, and more of them broke apart. More of them survived.

10. A group of molecule systems had found a new thing to do: be able to break apart and try to make the pieces continue “living.

11. These molecule systems were happier, for as the pieces grew larger, disintegration to oblivion was prevented by their own “break but preserve” mechanism.

12. These happier systems continued to live through their pieces.

13. The mechanisms of “doing things” did not have to be invented all over again each time by each new molecule system, as those that lived through fragmentation carried all / most of those mechanisms in them. So the ones that lived on now could concentrate on improvisation – finding newer things to do, and newer ways to do older things.

14. Some of these newer ways were better than the older ones. They lived longer and made more (successful and surviving) babies than the systems with the older ways of doing things.

Ergo, reproduction.

Ergo, selection.

Ergo, life.