Later, I became intrigued by questions such as: How did eukaryotes evolve from bacteria and cyanobacteria? Is the eukaryotic cell essentially the simplest two-celled organism with two distinct genomes – the first chimera? Was it the first parasite turned symbiont, and why did such cells gain the potential to eventually give rise to multicellular organisms? And what are multicellular organisms, really? Where do we begin? With flagellated Volvox? With sponges? With the freshwater polyp Hydra? With worms? Clearly, there were intermediate forms, some of which are still known to us today. However, it’s not a fact that these currently existing intermediate forms represent the transitional stages on the path of aromorphosis. Perhaps these are newly emerged cellular associations that appeared in the more recent past.
To me, one thing was clear: multicellularity begins with the differentiation of cells. It is precisely at this point that the simplest multicellular organism emerges. From there, integration intensifies, leading to the development of tissues, organs, and functional systems of organs and tissues. Unlike I.S. Shklovsky (or rather his later views), I believed that the emergence of intelligent life was as inevitable as the emergence of chemical reactions and biological life.
But what is intelligence in relation to life? In my view, the key moment was the emergence of intelligence within a multicellular organism. The reproduction of chemical compartments was the first property that life acquired beyond chemical transformations. The second property was the differentiation of compartments, followed by their integration into tissues, organs, and organisms, with biochemical processes now permeating all of these biological systems. Vernadsky proposed the idea of the "ubiquity" of life: living matter is capable of spreading across the surface of the planet. It rapidly occupies all unclaimed areas of the biosphere, creating pressure on non-living nature.
Life, as an ordered system of chemical reactions, gave rise to self-replication, differentiation, and integration of biochemical systems that could no longer be reduced solely to chemical processes, even though all these properties of life remained inseparable from ordered chemical reactions. The diversity of material forms that emerged through systems of ordered chemical reactions is immense, and the number of new organic chemical compounds has grown exponentially. Over its existence, these systems have transformed the atmosphere, lithosphere, and hydrosphere, influenced continental drift, and much more [5], providing rich material for scientists to develop fields like paleontology, paleogenetics, evolutionary biochemistry, biogeochemistry, evolutionary theory, and many other disciplines. It should be noted that without the physics of electrons in the atoms of chemical elements, chemical reactions would not be possible. However, molecules and supramolecular structures cannot be reduced solely to the energy states of electrons in atoms.