Autocatalytic Set - Non-autonomous Autocatalytic Sets

Non-autonomous Autocatalytic Sets

Virtually all articles on autocatalytic sets leave open whether the sets are to be considered autonomous or not. Often, autonomy of the sets is silently assumed.

Likely, the above context has a strong emphasis on autonomous self replication and early origin of life. But the concept of autocatalytic sets is really more general and in practical use in various technical areas, e.g. where self-sustaining tool chains are handled. Clearly, such sets are not autonomous and are objects of human agency.

Examples of practical importance of non-autonomous autocatalytic sets can be found e.g. in the field of compiler construction and in operating systems, where the self-referential nature of the respective constructions is explicitly discussed, very often in terms of the chicken and egg problem.