On systems

I was taken by this quote from an old book by von Bertalanffy:

Even if complex molecules like nucleoproteins and enzymes are considered as being ‘given’, there is no known principle of physics and chemistry which, in reactions at random, would favor their ‘survival’ against their decay; rather this is contrary to the second law of thermodynamics according to which a ‘soup’ containing proteins, nucleoproteins, enzymes, etc., would tend to chemical equilibrium, that is, breakdown of ‘improbable’ proteins, etc, into ‘probable’ simple compounds (as happens after the death of any living system). Selection, i.e. favored survival of ‘better’ precursors of life, already presupposes self-maintaining, complex, open systems which may complete; therefore selection cannot account for the origin of such systems.

L. von Bertalanffy, Robots, Men and Minds (New York: Braziller 1967, p 82.)