Cooperation and the Gradual Emergence of Life and Teleonomy

A wide consensus among researchers into the origins of life states that simple life, in its origins, contained at least three molecular structures: replicators, metabolic enzymes, and membranes. In itself, this view allows to hypothesize that, in the path leading to this self-supporting triad, many partial combinations of these three elements and their reciprocal or unilateral supporting relations were possible. There is only a small step from here to the idea that life could – perhaps must – have arisen gradually. We take this idea to its logical consequence: also life’s characteristics – mainly teleonomy and complexity built through cooperation between molecular structures – emerged gradually in a chemical process that progressively turned into a biological one. Interestingly, the cases of life and teleonomy give us insight into emergence as a gradual process, a process that unfolds diachronically.