Many origin of life theories argue that molecular self-organization explains the spontaneous emergence of structural and dynamical constraints. However, the preservation of these constraints over time is not well-explained because of the self-undermining and self-limiting nature of these same processes. A process called autogenesis has been proposed in which a synergetic coupling between self-organized processes preserves the constraints thereby accumulated. This paper presents a computer simulation of this process (the Autogenic Automaton) and compares its behavior to the same self-organizing processes when uncoupled. We demonstrate that this coupling produces a second-order constraint that can both resist dissipation and become replicated in new substrates over time.

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© 2016 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license
2016
MIT Press
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