ABSTRACT
The third chapter is devoted to a reconstruction of life shortly after the singularity of its emergence. It is argued that LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor) contained all the elements that we call the Norm; we also offer a short survey of how it may have looked. The subsequent evolution is illustrated by the model of autonomous agents and their biospheres, as developed by S. Kauffman. An autonomous agent is any entity that is able to both reproduce and perform work cycles. To accomplish both tasks, however, it must master communication with its environment (primarily consisting of other agents) as well as command its internal memory and experience; in other words, it must be able to build an internal representation of its world. Such a closure, separating the interior of the agents from the external world, is a decisive evolutionary step. Evolution is accomplished by negotiating (adjusting) transitions into the near future (of both the biosphere and its agents). The chapter further discusses the characteristics of a ‘universal cell’ (a prototype of the Norm) which necessarily exchanged information and/or structure across the biosphere and which had already been provided with signaling pathways, extracellular matrices, cell-to-cell contacts, etc.
