Maybe this can sort through terms for
prebiotic activity:
"Inheritance would therefore, at first, have been mostly a
matter of transmitting molecular 'things' that permit
survival, rather than transmitting exact nucleic acid
patterns that produce the "things"
"Unless we postulate an accident of immense proportions and
infinitely low probablility, selection must have bridged the
gap between chemical evolution (changes in the composition
of non reproductive or poorly reproductive molecules,
coacervates, microspheres, and so on) and biological
evolution (changes in inherited differences among
reproductive organisms). So far selecion is the only natural
mechanism we know that can account for the creative changes
among nonreproductive individuals that could have led them
in the direction of living organisms: from molecules" - to
'function" - to "message." Although the events may be
complex the device is simple: organisms that react to their
environment with improved useful information replace those
that lack such information."
Quotes Evolution, Stricberger
Comment?