Before revision: Researching the conditions for the emergence of life -- not necessarily as it is, but as it could be -- is one of the main goals of Artificial Life. Answering this question requires a model that can first explain the emergence of evolvable units , namely, structures that (1) preserve themselves in time (2) self-reproduce and (3) can tolerate a certain amount of variation when reproducing.
After revision: Researching the conditions for the emergence of evolvable units must display emerging structures that (1) preserve themselves in time (2) self-reproduce and (3) can tolerate a certain amount of variation when reproducing.