THE MOST PRIMITIVE FORMS OF LIFE 



of virus to cell may have taken place, is the realization 

 that one deals here with an integration of initially 

 clearly separate components forming a new entity. This 

 integration process produces a further increase of the 

 local extropy level. The association of complex molec- 

 ular units, which makes cell formation possible, is 

 somewhat analogous to the association of the relatively 

 simpler molecules which form the more complex poly- 

 merized molecule on a lower level. This polymer for- 

 mation is again in certain respects analogous, though 

 of course not identical, to the association of atoms to 

 form a molecule such as an amino acid occurring on a 

 still lower level. Even the formation of atoms from 

 sub-atomic particles fits, as a possibly initial term, 

 into the evolutionary series of integration and increas- 

 ing complexity of matter. 



In each of these successive integrations, the resulting 

 new entity is of higher extropy than its component 

 parts arranged at random. The new entity is generally 

 stable over a narrower range of ambient conditions. It 

 shows entirely new properties, which could hardly be 

 predicted from the properties of its individual com- 

 ponent parts. Yet in its microstructure the constituent 

 parts are preserved as recognizable sub-units. As the 

 complexity of matter increases and its extropy conse- 

 quently increases, the differential between the extropy 

 level of the ambient (which is much lower) and that 

 of the packages of high extropy, biological matter in- 



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