W. Fontana and L. W. Buss
We develop an abstract chemistry, implemented in a
-calculus
based modelling platform, and argue that the following features are
generic to this particular abstraction of chemistry, hence would be
expected to reappear if 'the tape were played 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.