Deceptive simplicity and law-governed symbiosis: a critical mini-review of the mechanisms underlying the emergence of multicellular organisms.

The mechanisms underlying the evolutionary emergence of multicellular organisms are examined from a systems perspective. The key parameter of this evolution is complexity, both of individual cells and of the multicellular organism. The main problems of cell integration are examined, such as genome integration and the coordination of the functioning of immune and transport systems. As a result, the emergence of a multicellular organism from any unicellular organism is an unattainable task for random mutations and selection. The concept of regulated symbiosis is proposed as a mechanism for the formation of a multicellular organism. The problem of the origin of multicellularity is also examined from the perspective of systems theory. This perspective allows us to understand the most general problems concerning the origin of multicellular organisms. As a mechanism for implementing regulated symbiosis, immanent laws of form generation are proposed, realized through hidden variables in quantum mechanics.