Boreskov

OP‐11NATURAL SELECTION IN PREBIOLOGY: GENERAL CONSTRAINTS, BASICPROBLEMS, AND PHYSICAL VIEW ON THE SOLUTIONSAvetisov V.Semenov Institute of Chemical Physic, RAS, Kosygina 4, 119991 Moscow, Russia;vladik.avetisov@gmail.comOriginally, the idea of natural selection had to do with the organisms as carriers ofbiological reproductive function. Now, it spreads up to the molecular level. New concepts ofprebiotic evolution put forward, which argue that the selection of specific macromoleculesunder autocatalytic (or cyclic) fabrication transforms "absolutely impossible events(probability 10 ‐100 ) into absolutely reliable ones (probability 1)" (see, for example, [1]). Infact, such ideas are completely incorrect because the selection critically depends on theprecision of reproductive function. This fact was first realized in [2] by analyzing the kineticmodel of the following formidSdtik w k k S S k w Snn popi i i ji j ij jj1 j1,ji , (1)where S , i 1,2,...,n , is the number of objects of i‐th type, k and k are the rateconstants for reproduction and destruction respectively,appearing an exact copy, andiis the conditional probability foris the rate parameter of nonselective population pressurethat keeps constant the total number of objects. The last sum in the right hand side of theequations (1) describes production of the objects of i‐type due to erroneous reproduction ofthe objects of other types:reproduction.popkw ijw iis the conditional probability for such event in an act ofModel (1) shows nontrivial characters of the selection. Under absolutely precisereproduction ( wvalue of "fitness"i1, w 0), the selection of so‐called a "wild species" with the highestkiiji k is carried out. The assertion that the selection transforms"absolutely impossible events into completely reliable ones" is based just on this abstractsituation. In fact, the distribution of "species" is localized around the "wild species" if andonly if the precision of reproductive functions exceeds some critical value (error threshold).It is crucial that the error threshold strongly depends on complexity of the objects. (Aboutthe meaning of the term "complexity" in the context of natural selection see [3]). The morecomplex objects are, the more precise reproduction must be. If not, then as far as the errori46