Divined by the genius of Alfred Russell Wallace and Charles Darwin, the basic principles of evolution by natural selection are well known. First, there is genetic continuity, based on replication. Then, inevitably, comes variation. Finally, there is competition, leading to selection of the variants most apt to survive and proliferate under the prevailing conditions. The findings of modern biology have fully validated those principles, adding the fundamental fact that the causes of variation are strictly accidental and unintentional. The key notion in this theory is replication. The rest follows obliga-torily. Thus, in the origin of life, darwinian evolution must have started as soon as the first replicable molecules appeared. Here, I intend to draw attention to certain implications of this fact that are sometimes ignored or underestimated in discussions of the origin of life. I shall assume, in agreement with most workers in the field, that the first replicable molecules consisted of RNA.
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机译：由阿尔弗雷德·罗素·华莱士（Alfred Russell Wallace）和查尔斯·达尔文（Charles Darwin）的天才划分，通过自然选择进化的基本原理是众所周知的。首先，有基于复制的遗传连续性。然后，不可避免地会出现变化。最后，存在竞争，导致选择最适合在当前条件下生存和增殖的变体。现代生物学的发现完全验证了这些原理，并补充了一个基本事实，即变异的原因严格是偶然的和无意的。该理论的关键概念是复制。其余部分则强制执行。因此，在生命起源中，达尔文进化论必须在第一个可复制分子出现后即开始。在这里，我打算提请注意这一事实的某些含义，这些含义有时在讨论生命起源时被忽略或低估了。与该领域的大多数工作人员一致，我将假定第一个可复制分子由RNA组成。
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