[js1138]

So naturally we might ask how it accomplishes this feat to delay the inevitable?

It makes backup copies. Self replication occurs in rather low level chemistry, as discussed in the video I linked. Doesn't require a genome or DNA or RNA.

[Alamo-Girl]

The "it" in my post was an amoeba. Cells with nuclei make backup copies of their DNA. Amoebae replicate. They don't live forever, they just do not age.

Chemicals are not "alive" - neither are amino acids. Compare the failure of Urey/Miller to bootstrap life by simulating lightning strikes v. Wimmer's success to bootstrap the polio virus by starting with the message, e.g. RNA data off the internet.

I stand by my statement that every "thing" in space/time, including the lowly amoeba must pay the thermodynamic tab. And it does indeed pay that tab when it successfully communicates.