Quantum origin of life: methodological, epistemological and ontological issues

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential quantum mechanical basis of life's origin, analyzing philosophical, biological, and informational perspectives, and proposing quantum computation as a means to understand auto-replication and genetic emergence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework combining Information Theory and Quantum Theory to examine the quantum origin of life and proposes new scientific hypotheses like Q-life and quantum algorithms.

Findings

Quantum mechanics may be inherent to the origin of life

Quantum computation could increase probabilities of auto-replicative structures

Proposes new hypotheses: Q-life, quantum library, role of algorithms

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze the role of quantum mechanics as an inherent characteristic of life. During the last ten years the problem of the origin of life has become an innovative research subject approached by many authors. The essay is divided in to three parts: the first deals with the problem of life from a philosophical and biological perspective. The second presents the conceptual and methodological basis of the essay which is founded on the Information Theory and the Quantum Theory. This basis is then used, in the third part, to discuss the different arguments and conjectures of a quantum origin of life. There are many philosophical views on the problem of life, two of which are especially important at the moment: reductive physicalism and biosystemic emergentism. From a scientific perspective, all the theories and experimental evidences put forward by Biology can be summed up in to two main research themes: the RNA world and the vesicular theory. The RNA world, from a physicalist point of view, maintains that replication is the essence of life while the vesicular theory, founded on biosystemic grounds, believes the essence of life can be found in cellular metabolism. This essay uses the Information Theory to discard the idea of a spontaneous emergency of life through replication. Understanding the nature and basis of quantum mechanics is fundamental in order to be able to comprehend the advantages of using quantum computation to be able increase the probabilities of existence of auto replicative structures. Different arguments are set forth such as the inherence of quantum mechanics to the origin of life. Finally, in order to try to resolve the question of auto replication, three scientific propositions are put forward: Q-life, the quantum combinatory library and the role of algorithms in the origin of genetic language.