“For example, suppose that these models about the origin of life are correct. Then life doesn’t hang in the balance. It doesn’t depend on whether some warm little pond just happens to produce template-replicating molecules like DNA or RNA. Life is the natural expression of complex matter. It’s a very deep property of chemistry and catalysis and being far from equilibrium. And that means that we’re at home in the universe. We’re to be expected. How welcoming that is! How far that is from the image of organisms as tinkered-together contraptions, where everything is bits of widgetry piled on top
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