ARTICLE 8. MEMORY THEORY: ABIOGENESIS – HOW THE FIRST CELLS WERE CREATED

Abstract

According to the Non-Information Theory of Life (NJT), life is defined as the ability of a supramolecular ensemble to maintain its identity in a continuous exchange of matter and energy. Previous works in the series described the physical mechanisms of recording (tetrasignatures and tetraphases of water) and storage (carbosignatures and carbomorphosis). The present article applies these mechanisms to the problem of abiogenesis. Standard models—the "primordial soup," the "RNA world," and hydrothermal scenarios—cannot explain how random chemical reactions in a homogeneous solution give rise to highly ordered structures capable of self-sustaining identities. The proposed theory asserts the opposite: primary ordering occurs at the level of water itself. In local zones of ordered water (S-, γ- and δ-tetraphase), external influences create tetrasignatures, i.e., a physical relief that directs the orientation and binding of monomers. This triggers condensate cycles — autocatalytic processes with positive feedback, leading to the formation of supramolecular ensembles (SMAs) — the first transitional life forms with the rudiments of identity. The article shows how the theory of tetrasignatures solves seven classical problems of abiogenesis (concentration, ordering, polymerization, chirality, heredity, compartmentalization, stability) and provides experimental confirmations: quantum spin effects governing vertebrate physiology, biomolecular condensates (LLPS) as relics of the first SMAs, prebiotic synthesis of monomers, and magnetic modulation of chemical reactions. Life appears not as a unique event, but as a physical inevitability in the presence of water in ordered tetraphases, monomers, and the flow of energy. Within NTJ, abiogenesis is the process of the emergence of a self-sustaining identity of a supramolecular ensemble.