Hi Hoot Mon! Welcome to EvC!
Hoot Mon writes:
This non-analogous requirement of genes for the emergence of life seems especially odd to me; it shifts our attention from the material analogs of life to its digital script.
While I'm not quite clear on your question, I think that the focus on "digital information" is just a sign of the times. The origins of life research crowd is generally divided into two camps: replication-firsters and metabolism-firsters (there are a few other camps as well, like membrane-firsters, but in general that's around about it). Depending on who you talk to you will receive different perceptions of the origin of life- some propose it began with a replicator, others state it's a series of quasi-metabolic reactions. A large proportion of origins of life research is in fact focused with the replication-first paradigm in mind. Other research in the metabolism-first paradigm is sometimes viewed as "renegade" or even worse.
The field of origins of life research arose around about the same time as the Watson-Crick discovery of the structure of DNA, and was clearly affected by this discovery. Pre-DNA the origins field focused on the formation of amino acids, sugars, membranes, and other biological components of life. Post-DNA the origins field focused on nucleobases, ribose, and polymerization pathways. One sees a similar change of focus in the biological and biochemical studies.
In recent times, the origins of life field has gotten more messy, and it may soon abandon the metabolism-first vs. replication-first paradigms. It's hard to say where it's going, but we shall see.