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Here, we propose that the emergence of life may correspond to a physical transition associated with a shift in the causal structure, where information gains direct and context-dependent causal efficacy over the matter in which it is instantiated. Such a transition may be akin to more traditional physical transitions (e.g. thermodynamic phase transitions), with the crucial distinction that determining which phase (non-life or life) a given system is in requires dynamical information and therefore can only be inferred by identifying causal architecture.
New thinking in how life might have arisen on a lifeless planet, by shifting emphasis to the origins of information control, rather than, for example, the onset of Darwinian evolution.
Watch a lecture from Dr. Walker, one of the authors (SETI Talks): http://youtu.be/dPiI4nYD0Vg