Intrinsic Division Between Spontaneous and Selected Objects

Prove that the classification of distinguishable objects into spontaneous objects (those that can form in abundance when conditions permit) versus selected objects (those that require very specific selective circumstances to form against a combinatorially explosive set of possibilities) is an intrinsic property of the objects themselves within Assembly Theory, rather than merely a feature of the processes that produce them.

Background

Within Assembly Theory, the authors introduce two classes of objects elucidated by the example of Taxol: spontaneous objects that can form in abundance when conditions allow, and selected objects that require specific circumstances for their formation against a combinatorial explosion of possibilities. They argue that sufficiently high-assembly objects cannot exist without selection, and present a formal threshold separating spontaneous from selected objects.

The conjecture asserts that this division is not just a characteristic of generative processes but is instead a property of the objects themselves. Establishing this would anchor the spontaneous/selected distinction as an intrinsic object-level attribute in assembly space, central to AT’s ontology of material causation and its proposed thresholds for life detection.