ARTICLE 2. MEMORY THEORY: THE PHYSICS OF WATER MOLECULES

Abstract

According to the Non-Information Theory of Life (NJT), living systems are described as supramolecular ensembles capable of maintaining their identity in the flow of matter and energy. The key mechanism for preserving identity is physical memory – the ability of the system to record traces of past influences and influence future reactions. Water appears as an active matrix capable of recording such traces. Water under different conditions—on mineral surfaces, in micropores, and in electric fields—can exist in several states of order, which we call tetraphases: M (chaotic, bulky), S (ordered), γ (deeply ordered, quasicrystalline), and δ (chiral-asymmetrical, hypothetical). In ordered tetraphases (S, γ, δ), external influences create local redistributions of the α/β states of water, called tetrasigns, which form an energetic relief that directs the orientation and binding of monomers. Tetrasignatures are a physical recording mechanism that precedes the appearance of carbon memory carriers (RNA, DNA, proteins). For the first time, a quantitative model is presented that explains how an ensemble of water molecules can maintain order by 10¹²–10¹⁵ longer than the lifetime of a single hydrogen bond due to cooperative effects. The mechanism of how monomers "feel" the relief at the electrostatic level is described, and numerical estimates of the reduction of the energy barrier of polymerization in S-tetraphase are given. After the carbon structures are built, the water leaves, and further storage and memory work is provided by carbosignatures through carbomorphosis. The work is a direct development of NTJ, showing how the primary record necessary for the formation of the identity of future supramolecular ensembles arises at the water level.