A fascinating, though dated, read. Kauffman is one of a fairly small group of researchers who -- during the last quarter of the 20th Century -- focused their attention on learning what regularities might exist among complex phenomena, such as snowflakes, currents in air and water, and molecular catalysis. Kauffman asserted that catalytic closure at the molecular level, and not template replication (as with RNA), is the sign of life. Useful illustrations throughout. ( )

Skilfully advances the case for higher-order evolution, but remains ultimately self-involved, and the references to a creator deity undermine the worthy theorising. ( )

If you're into the origins of life then this is a key book. It explains how self-organization and evolution can work together to produce life. The book is full of several meaty ideas. Including:

- Autocatalytic sets are sufficiently complex groups of chemicals that have the ability to collectively catalyze their own creation.
- Life is an expected emergent property of matter and energy
- Life exists near the boundary between order and chaos because evolution drives complex systems there.
- Different cell types may correspond to different attractor basins in a huge, complex genomic network. ( )

Vaguely unsatisfying -Kauffman casts his net too far.