A major challenge when describing the origin of life is to explain how instructional information control systems emerge naturally and spontaneously from mere molecular dynamics. So far, no one has clarified how information control emerged ab initio and how primitive control mechanisms in life might have evolved, becoming increasingly refined. Based on recent experimental results showing that chemical computation does not require the presence of life-related chemistry, we elucidate the origin and early evolution of information handling by chemical automata, from information processing (computation) to information storage (memory) and information transmission (communication). In contrast to other theories that assume the existence of initial complex structures, our narrative starts from trivial self-replicators whose interaction leads to the arising of more powerful molecular machines. By describing precisely the primordial transitions in chemistry-based computation, our metaphor is capable of explaining the above-mentioned gaps and can be translated to other models of computation, which allow us to explore biological phenomena at multiple spatial and temporal scales. At the end of our manuscript, we propose some ways to extend our ideas, including experimental validation of our theory (both in vitro and in silico).

翻译：描述生命起源的一个重大挑战在于，如何解释指令性信息控制系统如何从单纯的分子动力学中自然而然地自发涌现。迄今为止，尚无人阐明信息控制如何从最初状态涌现，以及生命中的原始控制机制可能如何演化并日益精进。基于近期实验结果表明化学计算无需依赖于与生命相关的化学过程，我们阐明了化学自动机进行信息处理的起源与早期演化，范围从信息加工（计算）到信息存储（记忆）和信息传输（通信）。与其他假设初始复杂结构存在的理论不同，我们的叙述始于简单的自我复制子，它们之间的相互作用导致了更强大的分子机器的产生。通过精确描述基于化学的计算中的原始转变，我们的隐喻能够解释上述空白，并可迁移至其他计算模型，从而让我们能够在多个时空尺度上探索生物学现象。在论文末尾，我们提出了若干拓展我们思路的方法，包括对我们理论的实验验证（既在体外，也在计算机中进行）。