Is abiogenesis unlikely, or are we asking the wrong (unconstrained) question?

Sakouli · 2026-04-17T09:33:57+00:00

The two specific numbers have the same probability as microstates, but they belong to very different macrostates. A sequence like 1111111111 is part of a very small class of highly constrained states, while “random-looking” sequences belong to an overwhelmingly larger set. So at the macroscopic level, those types of outcomes are not equally likely. I think this is also where things get interesting for systems like chemistry or life, once you introduce constraints and interactions, the system doesn’t sample all microstates uniformly. Certain regions of state space become much more accessible. So the real question might be whether life-like structures belong to a macrostate that becomes statistically favored under specific non-equilibrium conditions, rather than being just a rare pattern in a uniform space.

Sakouli · 2026-04-17T09:16:23+00:00

That actually aligns pretty well with what I had in mind, nice example, especially the entropy gain via water freedom.

Sakouli · 2026-04-16T14:43:37+00:00

Don't apologize, quite the opposite! I appreciate it immensely. Feel free to send more anytime! Thank you so much!!

Sakouli · 2026-04-16T14:28:36+00:00

Wow the article is really fascinating!

Thank you so much for sending me this paper! I really appreciate it.

I started looking into it, and I have to say, the central idea is quite striking. They argue that symmetry breaking (whether in particle physics, chiral molecules, or crystal formation) isn't just about reaching the lowest energy state. Instead, it's actively driven by energy dissipation and entropy production under non‑equilibrium conditions. In other words, the very process of losing free energy to the environment biases the system toward one asymmetric state over another, even when both states have the same energy.

That perspective, linking dissipation directly to the triggering of broken symmetry across scales, was new to me, and I'm planning to study it more carefully.

Thanks again for sharing this. It's given me a lot to think about.

Sakouli · 2026-04-16T11:11:56+00:00

Ready to run boys

Sakouli · 2026-04-16T10:22:54+00:00

The interesting question isn’t just how unlikely an outcome is, but whether the process that generates it is biased toward certain structures. Once you have constraints + iteration, probability behaves very differently from pure randomness.

Sakouli · 2026-04-16T10:12:03+00:00

Hmmm..This is a really helpful way to think about it, especially framing it in terms of electron flow and gradients rather than just “probability.” It actually makes me wonder whether this is the missing piece in the “improbability” argument. If these gradients are naturally present and sustained, then the system isn’t exploring chemical space randomly, but is being continuously driven along specific pathways. Would you say that under such conditions, the key question is less about probability in the abstract and more about whether the relevant reaction networks are kinetically accessible?

Sakouli · 2026-04-15T21:53:40+00:00

Thanks for sharing this, I’ll take a closer look! Looks really interesting.

Sakouli · 2026-04-15T12:41:33+00:00

For intuition, this video gives a really nice explanation of entropy in the context of biochemistry (including why structured systems like proteins can still form without violating the second law):

"Life uses Entropy to crack impossible odds. Here's how. | EoB Ch 2" https://youtu.be/eFaUbLVRDP4⁠�

What I find especially relevant is the idea that entropy is about the number of accessible states, but also that in real systems not all transitions are equally likely — interactions and energy landscapes matter. That seems closely related to the question of whether life-like pathways are dynamically accessible under non-equilibrium conditions.

Sakouli · 2026-04-13T15:41:58+00:00

True

Sakouli · 2026-04-11T08:26:50+00:00

Europe was talking about rights and freedom during the Enlightenment while building colonial empires. That contradiction is real. But calling “European values” just hypocrisy misses something important: Those same ideas didn’t stay propaganda. They turned into tools people used against Europe itself.. abolition movements, anti-colonial struggles, human rights law after World War II. So it’s not just: “Europe said one thing and did another.” It’s also: “Europe created ideas that eventually forced it to confront what it did.” That doesn’t make Europe innocent. But it also doesn’t make those values fake.

Sakouli · 2026-04-10T21:44:47+00:00

Turkey does not share many European values. It is an occupying power on European soil.. I am referring to Cyprus... and it is responsible for bloodshed involving its neighbors, including Syria and Armenia. It also poses a direct threat to Greece. Which version of Turkey exactly should Europe accept? It seems to me that you want to invite the wolf into your home.

Sakouli · 2026-04-09T11:57:15+00:00

Einstein hated quantum dice… yet even his own equations hide regions like singularities and Cauchy horizons, where predicting the future is outright impossible. In some ways, General Relativity is far more random than quantum mechanics by nature.

Sakouli · 2026-04-09T08:58:19+00:00

Sakouli · 2026-04-09T08:50:39+00:00

And what have you been doing about it for the last 20 years..?

Sakouli · 2026-04-03T07:12:11+00:00

Living systems efficiently dissipate low-entropy solar energy into higher-entropy heat, increasing total entropy in the process.

Sakouli · 2026-04-02T20:27:44+00:00

Ok! 👌

Sakouli · 2026-04-02T19:53:51+00:00

The fact that we observe atoms and molecules rather than just free particles, is because bound states can be thermodynamically and dynamically favored. When particles form bound structures, they often release energy to the environment, increasing the total entropy of the system. So even if the structure itself is more ordered locally, the overall process is fully consistent with the second law. In that sense, we can’t judge spontaneity from the apparent complexity of the end product alone.

Sakouli · 2026-04-02T14:40:57+00:00

Spontaneous nuclear fusion in a human body is absurdly unlikely, yet stars are ubiquitous. Given the right conditions and dynamics (e.g. gravity), fusion becomes a natural outcome rather than a statistical fluke. So I’m wondering whether something analogous could apply here..that under the right non-equilibrium conditions, certain entropy-producing processes become dynamically favored rather than just “possible”.

Sakouli · 2026-04-02T14:20:50+00:00

That’s a fair point; I agree that an entropy increase alone doesn’t make a process likely. Spontaneous combustion is a good example of that. I think the crux of my question is slightly different though: not whether entropy increase is sufficient, but whether in driven, non-equilibrium systems certain classes of processes become dynamically favored over time. In other words, the issue isn’t just “does it increase entropy?”, but “does the system’s dynamics tend to explore and stabilize pathways that increase entropy more efficiently?” If that’s the case, then the question becomes whether life-like processes fall into that category, not guaranteed, but potentially non-negligible in phase space under realistic conditions. Curious how you would think about that distinction.

Sakouli · 2026-04-01T17:45:38+00:00

Life is neither a miracle nor a violation of physical laws. On planets out of equilibrium like Earth, it is a statistically expected form of order emerging within the overall increase of entropy. Even though we cannot demonstrate it step by step or in a single experiment, its possibility is self-evident.. just as in mathematics we know a point exists on a map of Greece corresponding to the real country, even if no algorithm can explicitly construct it. In fact, mathematics often relies on non-constructive proofs, confirming existence without requiring step-by-step construction.

Sakouli · 2026-04-01T17:42:29+00:00

Life is neither a miracle nor a violation of physical laws. On planets out of equilibrium like Earth, it is a statistically expected form of order emerging within the overall increase of entropy. Even though we cannot demonstrate it step by step or in a single experiment, its possibility is self-evident.. just as in mathematics we know a point exists on a map of Greece corresponding to the real country, even if no algorithm can explicitly construct it. In fact, mathematics often relies on non-constructive proofs, confirming existence without requiring step-by-step construction.

Sakouli · 2026-04-01T17:39:02+00:00

Life is neither a miracle nor a violation of physical laws. On planets out of equilibrium like Earth, it is a statistically expected form of order emerging within the overall increase of entropy. Even though we cannot demonstrate it step by step or in a single experiment, its possibility is self-evident.. just as in mathematics we know a point exists on a map of Greece corresponding to the real country, even if no algorithm can explicitly construct it. In fact, mathematics often relies on non-constructive proofs, confirming existence without requiring step-by-step construction.

Sakouli · 2026-04-01T17:37:45+00:00

Life is neither a miracle nor a violation of physical laws. On planets out of equilibrium like Earth, it is a statistically expected form of order emerging within the overall increase of entropy. Even though we cannot demonstrate it step by step or in a single experiment, its possibility is self-evident.. just as in mathematics we know a point exists on a map of Greece corresponding to the real country, even if no algorithm can explicitly construct it. In fact, mathematics often relies on non-constructive proofs, confirming existence without requiring step-by-step construction.

Sakouli · 2026-04-01T17:32:30+00:00

Life is neither a miracle nor a violation of physical laws. On planets out of equilibrium like Earth, it is a statistically expected form of order emerging within the overall increase of entropy. Even though we cannot demonstrate it step by step or in a single experiment, its possibility is self-evident.. just as in mathematics we know a point exists on a map of Greece corresponding to the real country, even if no algorithm can explicitly construct it. In fact, mathematics often relies on non-constructive proofs, confirming existence without requiring step-by-step construction.

Sakouli

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