Stability distillation hypothesis for the origin of life

Abstract

The logical chain of this paper proceeds as follows: differential stability leads to the spontaneous emergence of information, which enables the physical selection of RNA, followed by compartmentalization as a computational platform, then non-genetic information accumulation in metabolic networks, ribosomal assembly from cross-catalytic modules, and ultimately the co-origin and coexistence of cells and viruses. Each link in this chain constitutes the premise for the next, and each transition is driven by the same underlying principle, namely, selective enrichment via stability differences, operating under progressively more complex boundary conditions. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that, under plausible early Earth physicochemical conditions, the entire transition from random chemistry to genetic systems can be derived through a unified, logically necessary mechanism, without recourse to any ultra-low-probability chance events. If this argument holds, then the origin of life is no longer an inscrutable "fortuitous miracle" but the "inevitable emergence" of a complex chemical system under specific boundary conditions.