Must life be molecular/atomic scale nanotechnology?

Whether life is carbon based or something else, we are presuming that the fundamental units are extremely tiny. We need metabolism where parts are made or modified (by existing parts), which (if naturally occurring) probably gets booted up through a synergy of auto catalysis and self assembly.

In terrestrial life as we know it, it's implemented on the smallest possible scale involving chemistry, and re-arranging atoms (and electrons) is the smallest moving parts available at our energy scale.

So I would like to challenge this assumption. Can life emerge that's not carbon-based, and isn't simply using different atoms instead in an analogous way, but is based on units that are larger than single atoms and basic molecules? Does it have to be based on the smallest available things?

I'll entertain ideas of alternatives as well as arguments as to why it indeed must be atom-scale.

Note: the relevant features of life would be self-repair and (as applicable) homeostasis, being able to reproduce, and subject to Darwinian evolution.

I'm specifically asking about the possibility abiogenesis, not whether something could be constructed to have these features.

posted almost 8 years ago

JDługosz‭

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