Abstract
Autopoietic systems, chemotons, and autogens are models that aim to explain (the emergence of) life as a functionally closed and self-sustaining system. An essential element in these models is the notion of a boundary containing, maintaining, and being generated by an internal reaction network. The more general concept of collectively autocatalytic sets, formalized as RAF theory, does not explicitly include this notion of a boundary. Here, we argue that (1) the notion of a boundary can also be incorporated in the formal RAF framework, (2) this provides a mechanism for the emergence of higher-level autocatalytic sets, (3) this satisfies a necessary condition for the evolvability of autocatalytic sets, and (4) this enables the RAF framework to formally represent and analyze (at least in part) the other models. We suggest that RAF theory might thus provide a basis for a unifying formal framework for the further development and study of such models.Graphical abstractThe emergence of an autocatalytic (super)set of autocatalytic (sub)sets.
Highlights
The theory of autopoietic systems [1,2,3] and the chemoton model [4,5], both developed around the same time but independently, try to explain life as a functionally closed and self-sustaining chemical system
Boundaries in RAF sets To show how the notion of a boundary can be incorporated into the formal RAF framework, and how this can give rise to the emergence of higher-level RAF sets, we provide a simple example that is partly inspired by a chemical system described in [6]
The above example of how boundaries can be incorporated within the formal RAF framework shows how this essential element in other models of functionally closed, self-sustaining systems can be represented and analyzed in the context of RAF sets
Summary
The theory of autopoietic systems [1,2,3] and the chemoton model [4,5], both developed around the same time but independently, try to explain life as a functionally closed and self-sustaining chemical system. A more general and abstract model of a functionally closed, self-sustaining chemical reaction system is that of collectively autocatalytic sets [7,8,9].
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