Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a very computer science and not scientific response, but I look at the Game of Life, and it makes me realize that little patterns naturally form everywhere. Biology is just a little pattern that wants to replicate and survive and that doesn't have to mean intelligently.
> Biology is just a little pattern that wants to replicate and survive I don't really see biology as being a "little" pattern. To me, looking at the jump from replicating molecules in chemical soup to single cell organisms is like looking at the jump from an abacus to an Intel i9 processor.
Who said you had to junp to single celled organisms first? One of the oldest displays at a science museum I remember was very simple. It was basically a rubber sheet attached to the top of a spinning pole resmebling a folded umbrella without the spines. There was a adjustable knob you could play with to adjust the speed that it spun. It would start from zero. Versus interestingly to me, the exhibit demonstrated that at certain speeds the dangling edge of the rubber sheet would form nice sine waves at certain speeds. It might be chaotic at first but eventually, given just the right amount of energy to spin, the wave would appear. If you sped it up or slowed it down, sometimes the wave would collapse, but if you hit another natural frequency, it would eventually snap into a larger or smaller amplitude with a greater or lesser amplitude. My take away was that if there is enough energy and repetition to almost anything, eventually patterns will arise. And if you let them do that long enough, then even in imperfect environments, relatively stable outcomes would occur. Much like life in my opinion. Have enough chemicals and energy thrashing around long enough in a cycle, and enough adverse selection against all those structures, eventually some structures will emerge and self-reinforce. Doesn't gotta start with cells, just molecules.