Even the simplest life is, much like this chemical gunk, extraordinarily complex. Unlike gunk, however, it is also highly organized. The problem with using gunk as the starting material for generating organized life is that the random thermodynamic forces that were available in the primordial earth—the billiard-ball-like molecular motions that we discussed in chapter 2—tend to destroy order rather than create it. You throw a chicken into the pot, heat it up and stir it, and make chicken soup. No one has ever poured a can of soup into a pot and made a chicken.
