Essentials for Life

 

To summarize the key points covered in this chapter, three elements are required for life, which we have said begins at the cellular level.  From the perspective of life – that is, from the view “inside” the cell – these three elements are boundary, memory and procedure.  Looked at from the outside – from the perspective of an external observer – they are a permeable cell wall, DNA, and functional tasks that build, repair and maintain the physical parts of the cell. These tasks are not the physical molecule or structures themselves; they are the processes that constitute the true “parts” of an organism.

These three elements function together in the pico-instant-to-pico-instant life of the cell, as it selects bits of matter presented at the interior or exterior boundary of the cell wall, remembers the selection, and performs a task (or procedure).  As we’ll see later, procedure begins with the recognition of the selected bit as part of a larger whole.

Although we introduced these three elements in sequence – boundary, memory and procedure – keep in mind that insofar as they operate within the cell, there is no “starting point” per se.  All three elements are essential to life, and once they arise, they flow seamlessly between and through one another, linked by a continual two-way flow of information as represented by the dotted purple arrows shown in the diagram above.