On the Non-Equivalence of Molecular Synthesis and Life Formation

This paper establishes a formal non-equivalence between molecular synthesis and life formation, showing that they belong to fundamentally distinct classes of processes. Conventional approaches to abiogenesis are typically framed as problems of constructing specific biomolecular structures under controlled laboratory conditions. Such approaches implicitly assume that constructibility implies relevance for natural emergence. This work demonstrates that this assumption does not hold: constructive accessibility is not equivalent to environmental generability. We propose that life should instead be understood as a self-sustaining transformation regime characterized by reproduction and transmission of structural organization. Within this framework, individual molecular configurations are not primary. Rather, life corresponds to classes of configurations that remain invariant under environment-dependent transformation dynamics. The argument is developed within the Filtered Configuration Framework (FCF), in which observable structures are interpreted as the result of successive filtering processes acting on a broader configuration space. These include generation constraints, transformation dynamics, survival conditions, and observability limitations. As a consequence, molecular synthesis captures only a restricted projection of the generative process. From this perspective:— successful synthesis corresponds only to inclusion in the constructive domain,— life requires invariance under the full transformation and filtering regime,— and instability of individual configurations does not imply irrelevance, but may play a functional role. We further show that heterogeneous chemical environments, including carbon-rich phases such as tar-like and soot-like structures, can provide conditions for transient stabilization, coupling of reaction pathways, and the emergence of structural invariants. In such regimes, molecules traditionally considered unstable (e.g., ribose) appear as transient configurations embedded in broader transformation networks rather than as necessary generative units. The paper introduces a formal criterion for reproduction as structural invariance and demonstrates that many self-organizing systems (e.g., convection) fail this criterion due to the absence of structural transmission. A key consequence of this framework is the non-uniqueness of molecular implementations: functional organization does not uniquely determine a specific molecular realization. Commonly assumed prerequisites (such as particular molecular intermediates) are therefore not ontological requirements, but contingent features of specific implementations. This leads to a reformulation of abiogenesis: not as a problem of molecular construction, but as a problem of identifying transformation regimes and environmental conditions under which life-like organization emerges, persists, and reproduces. In this sense, abiogenesis is not a synthesis problem, but a regime selection problem.