This topic is a truly productive research area from the perspective of Fractal Mechanics and Fractal Statistics. The following model is a fractal interpretation in addition to current scientific knowledge; it is a conceptual framework, not an established theory.
The Emergence of Life with Fractal Self-Organization
1. The Classical Problem
The question of abiogenesis is this: How did simple molecules transform into self-replicating, information-storing, and evolving systems?
Today’s theories:
- RNA World
- Metabolism First
- Hydrothermal Vent Models
although suggesting such approaches, the “transition from disordered chemistry to ordered life” has not been fully explained.
2. The Fractal Approach
Basic assumption: Life did not begin with the emergence of a single molecule, but with the formation of chemical networks that repeat themselves across scales. That is:
Atom ↓ Molecule ↓ Reaction Network ↓ Metabolic Network ↓ Cell ↓ Colony ↓ Ecosystem
Each level is a fractal copy of the upper level.
3. Chemical Networks
In the Early Earth:
- Amino acids
- Fatty acids
- Nitrogenous bases
- Simple carbon compounds
were entering into random reactions.
Classical view: “There was a great chaos.”
Fractal view: Chaos = hidden organization
Some reactions began to occur more frequently than others. This produces a power law distribution: 𝑃(𝑘) ∝ 𝑘^(-α)
Here: k = number of reaction connections
Some molecules become the center of the network. The situation in today’s metabolism is the same.
4. Self-Reinforcing Cycles
For example: A → B B → C C → D D → A
let a cycle form in this manner.
This cycle:
- as it receives energy from the outside
- continues to produce its own product.
In the fractal view, this: creates a chemical core (chemical attractor). The system is no longer random.
5. The Fractal Critical Threshold
At some point, the network grows. The number of connections increases.
At a specific critical value: 𝑁 = 𝑁c
when this happens, the system undergoes a phase transition.
Just like water boiling: Chemistry ↓ Proto-Life
transformation occurs.
This critical point can be thought of as a kind of: Biological Percolation Threshold.
6. The Birth of Information
According to the fractal model, information does not first start in DNA. It first starts in the network.
A reaction network: If it can preserve its history it has produced information.
Mathematically: 𝐻 > 0.5 (Hurst exponent)
if so, the network remembers its past.
In this case, within the system:
- chemical memory
- selection
- evolution
begins.
7. How Does the First Cell Form?
Fat molecules spontaneously form a membrane.
The regions where the fractal network is dense: become Chemical Nodes.
Then: Reaction network + Chemical memory + Membrane
when combined: the first protocell emerges.
8. The Fractal Criterion of Life
The definition of life according to this model: 𝐿 = 𝑀 × 𝐼 × 𝑅
Here: M = metabolic network density I = information/memory capacity R = capacity for self-reproduction
If: 𝐿 > 𝐿c
exceeds the critical threshold, the system starts to behave as living.
Fractal Conclusion
According to this approach, life: is not the emergence of a single miraculous molecule, but multiscale fractal chemical networks crossing a critical complexity threshold.
In other words: Life was born not from molecules, but from chemical networks gaining fractal memory.
This idea is also compatible with the Fractal Statistics I am trying to develop; because the origin of life is defined here as a “chemical network phase transition” and a “memory-forming multifractal structure”.