Could a large inorganic molecule be made into a complex reproducing molecule by having atoms randomly knocked out of it?
Could a large inorganic molecule be made into a complex reproducing molecule by having atoms randomly knocked out of it?
I suppose. But if you want a much more likely pathway, read Stuart Kauffman's At Home in the Universe and then read his Investigations.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.
It would be "difficult" to do on "a" large inorganic molecule.
But give me a billion viruses (virusi?) with one H atom replaced with one fluorine atom, rendering them "dead," or inorganic. Put them in path of proton accelerator. The high-energy protons will randomly knock atoms off the large inorganic molecules. In one of them, the flourine atom is knocked off, and H atom replaces it, transmogrifying it into a "complex reproducing molecule."
So in a highly contrived experiment it can be done.
What's your point?
Point-> that this might have been a path to the first living organisms though not in a "highly contrived experiment".
Your right that if that is the limit to the idea then it is not very likely.