 The idea that selection can occur without there being replicators was first introduced as “chemical selection” in line with the views of Oparin, who proposed that coacervates (colloidal droplets) could encapsulate protobiological chemicals and self-replicate without genes through mechanical fission, a view also independently proposed by Haldane (Oparin 1936 [1938]; Haldane 1929; see Kolb 2016). This was later extended by the work of Sidney Fox, who showed that proteinoid spheres could mechanically reproduce stably (Hsu &amp; Fox 1976).