When an Atom Becomes a Message—Practicing Experiments on the Origins of Life

Abstract: Practicing experiments on the origins of life within the framework of quantum mechanics comes to face a task of distinguishing the descriptive spaces of the object between a space of physical states and a space of probability distributions. One candidate for accommodating both the physical and the probabilistic description in a mutually tolerable manner is to apply first-second person descriptions to the space of physical states while letting the space of probability distributions addressable in third person descriptions be accessible via first-second person descriptions. The mediator or messenger for accommodating these two types of description is the process of probability flow equilibration. The relative state formulation of quantum mechanics opens a possibility for the likelihood that a simple atom such as a carbon atom may carry a message for holding the process of probability flow equilibration. An experimental example demonstrating a carbon atom serving as a messenger is found in the running of the citric acid cycle in the absence of biological enzymes.