Reference: Postulate Mechanics
Life = Chemistry + Organization + Environment
Life Starts with Chemistry
Before we can understand life, we need to understand chemistry. Life is built on chemical reactions.
The simplest living things are viruses and cells. They follow instructions written in their genetic material — the biological “code” that tells them what to do.
That code is stored in molecules called DNA and RNA. Scientists can now build these molecules in a lab — but lab-made versions tend to have more errors. This is likely because the lab environment is different from the natural environment where these molecules originally formed.
What Happens in Chemical Reactions
When atoms bond together, they form molecules. Each new molecule can have properties that its individual atoms did not have on their own — but the atoms themselves do not disappear or change; their cores stay intact. Only the outer electron regions merge and interact.
One key point: the environment matters. Even if two reactions produce chemically identical results, there are subtle differences depending on where and how the reaction took place. A lab is not the same as nature, and those differences show up.
How Life’s Molecules First Appeared
Early Earth had no life, but it had energy — ultraviolet light, lightning, volcanic heat. These drove reactions between simple inorganic compounds, producing the first organic (carbon-based) molecules. Some of these molecules also arrived from space on meteorites and comets.
Over time, small molecules joined together into larger ones. A major turning point was the appearance of RNA — a molecule that could both store information and help drive chemical reactions on its own.
Eventually, some of these self-copying molecules became enclosed inside a membrane, forming a contained system. That was the beginning of the cell — with its own energy supply, protein-building machinery, and chemical regulation.
What Genetic Material Does
DNA (and RNA in some viruses) is the molecule that carries all the hereditary information of a living thing. It controls how an organism grows, develops, and functions. DNA is shaped like a twisted ladder (a double helix) and is made of repeating units called nucleotides.
“Hereditary” simply means what is passed from parents to offspring — traits like eye color, but also, importantly, the impressions left by trauma or unprocessed experiences. These can be impressed upon genes and carried forward through generations until they are resolved. When they finally get resolved, they can feel like memories from a past life.
Scientists can now synthesize DNA in a lab from scratch. But as with other synthetic genetic material, error rates increase as the molecule gets longer and more complex.
What All Living Things Have in Common
Every living organism, no matter how simple or complex, shares these basic features:
- Made of cells — the basic unit of life
- Uses energy — through chemical reactions, organisms break down food to power movement, growth, and other processes
- Maintains balance — living things regulate their internal temperature, acidity, and water levels despite changes in the outside world
- Grows — organisms increase in size and complexity according to their genetic instructions
- Reproduces — all living things can produce offspring, passing life on to the next generation
- Responds — organisms detect and react to changes in their environment, such as light, heat, or chemicals
- Evolves — over many generations, populations change in response to their environment
The Bigger Picture: Environment Is Everything
The core insight of Postulate Mechanics is that the environment is never separate from the organism. This is true at every level — from a simple chemical reaction to the most complex living being.
The environment is not just physical matter and energy. It also includes thought. Interactions happen at all three levels — matter, energy, and thought — and none of these can be ignored or treated as isolated from the others.
Life didn’t appear by magic — it grew step by step from simple chemistry, shaped by the environment at every stage.
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