Decoding Life and Universe Evolution with Assembly Theory
Dive into the mind of Lee Cronin, a chemist at the University of Glasgow, as he unravels his intriguing theories on the evolution of life and universe.
The conversation explores assembly theory – a unique way to quantify object complexity, its potential applications beyond chemistry, and the concept of an assembly index.
Life’s Ubiquity
There is a high likelihood that life is emerging on planets around every star in the sky.
However, due to the vast combinatorial space associated with these planets, our causal cones may never overlap.
This suggests that while life could be ubiquitous, we might become infinitely more isolated due to our position in that combinatorial space.
My biggest fear in a way is that life is everywhere but we’ve become infinitely more lonely because of our scaffolding in that combinatorial space. – Lee Cronin
Assembly Theory Explained
Assembly theory offers a novel approach to quantify an object’s complexity by determining how many steps it took to create it.
It also allows us to ascertain if an object was built through a process similar to evolution by examining how many copies exist.
For this theory to apply, an object needs to be finite and decomposable into subunits.
So assembly theory says that if we look at any object in the universe, any object, that we can quantify how complex it is by trying to find the number of steps it took to create it. And also, we can determine if it was built by a process akin to evolution by looking at how many copies of the object there are. – Lee Cronin
The Role of Assembly Index
Within assembly theory, the assembly index refers to the least number of steps required for constructing an object from its component parts.
This measure provides an innovative way of quantifying an object’s complexity based on its construction process.
Navigating Challenges & Using Shortcuts
A significant challenge lies in determining the minimum number of steps needed to create an object from basic building blocks – whether they are molecules for chemistry or words for language or axioms for mathematical theorems.
However, shortcuts exist that allow us to physically measure complexity without computationally calculating it – at least within chemistry.
Applying Assembly Theory Beyond Chemistry
Assembly theory isn’t confined to chemistry.
It has been applied to emojis by pixelating them and determining their assembly index based on the number of pixels needed to make up each image.
Though this method presents certain issues such as defining what constitutes an object and how to break it down, it offers a unique way of quantifying complexity that could be applicable in various fields.