1983 Volume 23 Issue 6 Pages 274-282
Molecular aggregates or molecular automata that could appear during chemical and protobiological evolution have boundary conditions of their own. The preceding products during molecular synthesis keep providing the boundary conditions for the subsequent production process. The successive feedback from product to production and the resulting internalization of the boundary conditions are the main mechanism underlying the evolution of functional molecular aggregates. The internalization of the boundary conditions and their endogenous changes with time are identified in the experimental protobiogenesis of thermal polymerization of amino acids, microsphere formation from the resulting thermal proteins and the reproduction of these microspheres. The physical process responsible for the internalization of the boundary conditions is material flow equilibration of an open material aggregate. Material flow equilibration is a process by which an open material aggregate constantly and endogenously changes its interaction with its exterior so as to maintain the continuity of material flow there. Both variations and constraints applied to the evolution of material aggregates are due to material flow equilibration and thus are inseparable. Protobiological information originates in the physical process by which the boundary conditions for molecular aggregates are formed endogenously.
