[Chapter 1] “The Unstable Animal” — Excerpts from Retrograde Prometheus (2026)
[§1] “Solar Abiogenesis”
“Life is said to have originated as an abiogenetic reaction2 of matter exposed to the Sun, which, by stressing it with its energy, causes it to undergo evolutionary contortions. From nothingness, the living rise and never rest.3 The biological principle of hormesis4 determines how environmental stress causes an adaptive capacity in the organism. This stress response function is common to all forms of life, from the simplest to the most complex. In macroevolutionary terms, the brain is the organ that by nature operates on the basis of anticipation,5 since every form of adaptation must be understood as the ability to predict6 stress factors coming from the environment and from mutations within the organism itself and to act or react preventively.
We can therefore say that life itself has a germinal predictive capacity for programming, anticipation, and mathematization, which becomes more complex with the emergence of (living) beings. Progressively, in more evolved organisms, certain condemnations are accredited, such as the experience of pain, instincts, and finally self-awareness, with all its consequences...”
2 Abiogenesis is the spontaneous process of the generation of life from non-living matter.
3 "The Sun, appropriately, is the initial abiogenic stress factor of life and remains, to this day, the main 'zeitgeber' (its circadian 'time donor' in the language of chronobiologists). Provoked by such enveloping hostility, toxicity, and agitation, abiogenetic implosion in a functional relationship with itself allows the living system to better present its state to itself in order to obtain anticipatory control over impending disturbances. This predictive core, constitutive of every vital process—highlighted by Maturana and Rosen—is a testament to the fact that the organism exists and persists through its exposure and anticipatory responsiveness to risk" (my translation). (Moynihan, 2020: 24).
4 The term 'hormesis,' literally 'stimulation,' refers to a biological principle whereby a substance or stimulus can have a positive effect on an organism at low doses, while at high doses it can become harmful. This biological principle applies in many fields—think of pharmacology—but more generally indicates how stress—understood as a stimulus affecting an organism—can create adaptive, and therefore beneficial, responses. In these terms, the concept is taken up and mentioned in relation to abiogenesis in Spinal Catastrophism. (Moynihan, 2020: 24–25).
5 "Stressors cause compensatory, adaptive, and beneficial responses. Stress, while pushing the organism to retreat and close in on itself, fuels 'biological robustness,' This is true at both the cellular and macroevolutionary levels, so much so that the advent of the central nervous system (CNS) can be explained as the phylogenetic descent of this propulsive antagonism—since the CNS is nature's organ of anticipation." Ibid.
6 "A living system, due to its circular organization [...] always functions in a predictive manner" (Maturana, 1980); see also Rosen (2012).
This book is available from May 1st 2026.