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4
Life Strategies
Sphere
Abstract.
Life is based on complex systems interacting with environments. In order
to guarantee their existence, these systems developed sophisticated strategies that
solve problems by introducing new problems. This is a peculiar aspect of life com-
plexity that sounds paradoxical in many aspects. In this chapter we outline some
basic strategies of life.
4.1
The Enzymatic Paradox
The kernel of Eigen's paradox [128] points out a crucial aspect of life and its fun-
damental relationship with the basilar mechanism of molecule replication. In fact,
assume that at some point of molecular evolution a polymer
was produced with
the ability of self-replication. Let
n
be the length of this polymer, of course this repli-
cation ability was characterized by an error rate
α
which, after a while, with a great
probability provides polymers which lose the very rare and remarkable property of
self-replication. For improving its auto-replicative capacity, this molecule
ε
surely
had to increase its complexity, that is its length. In fact, a longer replicator can per-
form a better replication. But, at the same time, a longer polymer implies a greater
error rate in the replication process. Therefore, self-replication implies two con-
flicting tendencies which have to meet at an equilibrium point
α
with an
error rate which is impossible to diminish in terms of polymer self-replication. This
argument shows, in qualitative terms, that self-replication can be improved along
a wider strategy. This was the strategy which life followed in its evolution from
the biochemical level to the cell level. Rather than single molecule self-replication,
(
α
0
,
n
0
,
ε
0
)
