The Algorithmic Origins of Life

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the origin of life can be understood as a physical transition marked by a shift in causal structure, where information begins to exert direct, context-dependent influence on matter, akin to phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis that life's emergence involves a causal transition driven by informational causal efficacy, linking physical and informational changes in a new framework.

Findings

Suggests a phase transition-like shift in causal structure marks life's origin

Proposes measures to identify this transition experimentally

Connects the onset of algorithmic information processing to causal architecture

Abstract

Although it has been notoriously difficult to pin down precisely what it is that makes life so distinctive and remarkable, there is general agreement that its informational aspect is one key property, perhaps the key property. The unique informational narrative of living systems suggests that life may be characterized by context-dependent causal influences, and in particular, that top-down (or downward) causation -- where higher-levels influence and constrain the dynamics of lower-levels in organizational hierarchies -- may be a major contributor to the hierarchal structure of living systems. Here we propose that the origin of life may correspond to a physical transition associated with a shift in causal structure, where information gains direct, and context-dependent causal efficacy over the matter it is instantiated in. Such a transition may be akin to more traditional physical transitions (e.g. thermodynamic phase transitions), with the crucial distinction that determining which phase (non-life or life) a given system is in requires dynamical information and therefore can only be inferred by identifying causal architecture. We discuss some potential novel research directions based on this hypothesis, including potential measures of such a transition that may be amenable to laboratory study, and how the proposed mechanism corresponds to the onset of the unique mode of (algorithmic) information processing characteristic of living systems.