Status Updates From Life as No One Knows It: Th...

Finally up to the topic of the book (assembly theory), but there's still a lot of circuitous verbiage. I get the feeling much of this book could have been an email. The idea is interesting; I just wish Walker had launched into it earlier, and was using clearer definitions and examples now.

Chapter 1 is frustratingly full of question-begging - the author confidently claims no one can satisfactorily explain why a car is not alive. But that’s a conclusion of her argument, not a premise. The writing also meanders, as though the editing team had no idea what the author was on about so just let her spin her wheels. Chapter 2 is starting to get more interesting.

Not able to personally over-invested in contemporary ideas and methods regarding origins of life, consciousness, etc…

but it’s a good companion read to the philosophical approach on similar issues of Jane Bennett’s “Vibrant Matters.”