本期节目继续探讨生命起源的奥秘，与布鲁斯·戴默博士深入探讨了热泉假说，该假说认为生命起源于地球上的火山热泉。戴默博士分享了其团队的研究成果，包括热泉作为生命演化的选择引擎、湿干循环、原细胞、竞争理论以及该假说的意义。此外，节目还涉及到群体记忆模型（PIM）如何解释生命演化中的合作与记忆形成，以及该模型在人工智能领域的应用。最后，戴默博士展望了未来，探讨了宇宙生命存在的可能性，以及如何利用小行星创造更多类似地球环境的“温暖的小池塘”，为宇宙生命播下种子。

👨‍🔬 热泉假说认为生命起源于地球上的火山热泉，而非达尔文所提出的“温暖的小池塘”。该假说认为，热泉中的化学物质和能量可以为生命演化提供必要的条件，并经过无数次的循环，最终形成生命。热泉作为选择引擎，筛选出能够在极端环境下生存的生物，并推动生命不断演化。

🧬 原细胞是生命演化过程中的重要阶段，它们是简单的细胞结构，具有自我复制和代谢的能力。热泉假说认为，原细胞可能在热泉中形成，并通过湿干循环不断进化。湿干循环是指热泉水位涨落，导致原细胞不断暴露在不同的环境中，从而促进其适应性进化。

🧠 群体记忆模型（PIM）可以解释生命演化中的合作与记忆形成。该模型认为，生命体之间的相互作用可以产生记忆，并通过群体传播，最终形成复杂的生命系统。PIM 可以应用于人工智能领域，帮助我们理解人工智能的进化和学习机制。

🌍 热泉假说不仅解释了地球上生命的起源，也为宇宙生命的存在提供了新的可能性。戴默博士认为，宇宙中可能存在许多类似地球的星球，其中也有可能存在火山热泉。如果这些星球具有类似地球的环境，那么生命就有可能在这些星球上诞生。

🚀 戴默博士提出，我们可以利用小行星创造更多类似地球环境的“温暖的小池塘”，为宇宙生命播下种子。通过将小行星改造为热泉环境，我们可以模拟地球生命起源的条件，探索生命的奥秘，并为宇宙生命的存在提供新的可能性。

🌌 戴默博士的研究不仅为我们理解生命起源提供了新的视角，也为我们探索宇宙生命的存在提供了新的思路。他的研究成果将继续推动我们对生命本质和宇宙奥秘的探索。

Jim continues his discussion with Bruce Damer on the origins of life...Jim continues his discussion with Bruce Damer on the origins of life. They discuss Darwin's "warm little pond" hypothesis, hydrothermal fields as selection engines, wet-dry cycling, proto-cells, competing theories, implications of the hypothesis, niche construction theory, the origin of life as mostly collaborative, the Probability Interaction Memory (PIM) model, effects of crowding together, sharing results, the emergence of memory, PIM as a general principle of emergence, Covid-19 as an example of amplification, applying PIM to civilizational health, the loss of face-to-face community membranes in late-stage capitalism, "hearthology," applying PIM to the search for artificial general intelligence (AGI), collaborations with Ben Goertzel & Google's AI group, protocellular systems as general learning systems, creating a genesis engine, the Fermi paradox & the Drake equation, the new concept of urability, the low probability of sustaining life long enough to reach complexity, new data from Mars & exoplanet atmospheres, the possibility that Earth is extremely rare, bringing the galaxy to life, creating hundreds of thousands of warm little ponds using asteroids, and much more. Episode Transcript JRS EP 167 - Bruce Damer on the Origins of Life BIOTA Institute JRS EP140 - Robin Dunbar on Friendship JRS Currents 072: Ben Goertzel on Viable Paths to True AGI The Open Cognition Project (OpenCog) Tierra (Wikipedia) Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, by Stephen Jay Gould SETI InstituteCanadian-born Dr. Bruce Damer has spent his life pursuing two questions: how did life on Earth begin? and how can we give that life (and ourselves) a sustainable pathway into the future and a presence beyond the Earth? A decade of laboratory and field research with his collaborator Prof. David Deamer at UCSC and teams around the world resulted in the Hot Spring Hypothesis for an Origin of Life, published in Scientific American in 2017 and the journal Astrobiology in 2020. The scenario has now passed its first key experimental tests in the laboratory and at volcanic hot springs around the world and has emerged as a leading contender for a general theory of abiogenesis. Implications of the work are now spreading through evolutionary biology, philosophy, AI and the search for life beyond Earth. New work with collaborators has proposed the urability framework, how life can start on many different worlds, and addresses some aspects of the Fermi Paradox.