…the very origins of life can be traced to the energy flows of an energetic universe…Deep in the chemical cycles of present-day bacteria are metabolic pathways, chemical traces repeating, with variation, the steps by which matter came to life…paints a picture of energy-rich matter maintaining and making more of itself before genes evolved….The bodies and selves we consider living derive from complex cycles of energy transformation, cycles that only later developed genes….Life displays directional processes such as expansion, increase of taxa, and increased energy use over time that do not square with … random process.

Eric D. Schneider & Dorion Sagan, Into the Cool: Energy Flow Thermodynamics and Life (pgs. xii-xiii)