title: What would be conserved if "the tape were played twice"?
abstract: We develop an abstract chemistry, implemented in a lambda-calculus-based modeling platform, and argue that the following features are generic to this particular abstraction of chemistry; hence, they would be expected to reappear if "the tape were run twice": (i) hypercycles of self-reproducing objects arise; (ii) if self-replication is inhibited, self-maintaining organizations arise; and (iii) self-maintaining organizations, once established, can combine into higher-order self-maintaining organizations.
authors.affiliation: Santa Fe Institute, NM 87501.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fontana
authors.forename: L W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Buss
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003198:Computer Simulation; D008954:Models, Biological; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008957:Models, Genetic; D000069497:Origin of Life; D012641:Selection, Genetic