Instead of a Summary

a) Life is a special form of organisation of matter, with the capacity for self-preservation and unregulated self-reproduction. The initial form in which these fundamental properties are realised is the structuring of organic matter on the basis of the DNA-gene; the subsequent optimisation of its forms is a winding path of trial and error leading to the emergence of consciousness. The key outcome of this evolution is the creation of a chip-gene capable of continual self-replication and optional improvement, quite possibly through a kind of natural selection: that is, capable of sustaining life as such, but now on an inorganic basis.

The morphological and functional characteristics of organic and inorganic forms of life are fundamentally unequal. They differ qualitatively in their mechanical and physical capabilities and in their presumed intellectual potential: the amounts of information accumulated, the speed at which it is processed, the possibilities for interdisciplinary analysis, and so on. Thus, in the global evolution of matter, the initial organic form of life is something like a preparatory stage for the next step in this process, whose beginning and destination are unknown…