The end of life represents high Assembly Index structures returning to simpler components
Assembly Index increases
Maximum complexity
Assembly begins to fail
Deassembly begins
Components recycled
ATP production stops. Energy gradients that maintained complex structures disappear. The system can no longer resist entropy.
Proteins unfold, DNA fragments, cell membranes dissolve. Complex molecules return to simpler components: amino acids, nucleotides, lipids.
Organic molecules break into inorganic compounds. Carbon returns to CO₂, nitrogen to ammonia, complex becomes simple.
Atoms that were once part of living systems return to the environment. They become available for new assembly processes.
Elements rejoin Earth's biogeochemical cycles. What was once highly assembled becomes raw material for future complexity.
Recycled components enter new organisms. Atoms that were you will become trees, bacteria, eventually other conscious beings.
In Assembly Theory, death is simply the reversal of assembly. Living systems maintain their high Assembly Index by constantly fighting entropy through energy input. When this energy flow stops, the complex structures can no longer maintain themselves.
Key aspects of deassembly:
This perspective reveals death not as destruction but as transformation—complexity returning to simplicity, making future complexity possible. Every death funds future life.
Watch complexity return to simplicity:
Complex living system maintaining high Assembly Index...
Assembly Index: 10²⁰