Dwarkesh (host)

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Help me understand how replicators arise in this world.

Because if you've got these independent pores, and they're each individually accumulating their own organics through these spontaneous processes.

But initially, at least, there's no shared inheritance.

It's not like if there's a very successful pore, it then causes there to be more pores that are exactly like it.

And sorry, what's happening is that, so the thing buds off and then like settles into another pore?

Yes.

I see.

Okay, got it.

And this happens like relatively early in this process?

Yes.

And so the rise of replicators happens relatively early.

And so at what point do we get to the gene's point of view where the gene is the coherent unit of replication?

So your sort of mitochondria first viewpoint helps explain why there's two sexes.

Maybe you can recapitulate that argument, but I'm curious if there was a world where prokaryotes had evolved sex, do you think that they would have likely evolved just one sex?

Can you help me understand why it's the case that uniparental inheritance of mitochondria helps increase variance?

So then the question of why there's two sexes.

Well, you explained why there's this evolutionary need for only one parent to pass on the mitochondria.

Yeah.