Chapter III: The Stone-Water Circuit: The Engine Before Life

This chapter is long and requires commitment. The Stone–Water Circuit Theory is the foundation of the book. If you skip it, the rest might feel interesting, but if you read it, the rest is inevitable.

The Stone Water Circuit Theory - by Pierre Kory and Matt Bakos

ACT I: The Stone–Water Circuit - An Overview

This chapter introduces the theoretical framework that converged around everything that came before it. As I began to describe in the latter part of the last chapter, the alchemical and theological trail I was following in the writing of this book ended up returning me back to the mineral sciences from which I thought I had departed at the end of FVTV. That return led to the emergence of a second, novel, and comprehensive scientific theory, distinct from the Water Coherence Collapse Theory that underlies the first book.

At first, I tried to place this new theory in that book, but it quickly became apparent it was the foundation of this one, as it will be the place from where we launch into topics such as the Philosophy of Science, as well as Theology and Alchemy, topics, as I mentioned, I never thought I would be exploring in my writing.

The theory, or framework, is a cosmological one, arrived at iteratively through an interplay of insights between MB and me as we explored mineralogy, soil science, and modern biochemistry, guided by depictions in alchemical and scriptural texts and by our understanding of Shimanishi’s experimental work.

Before going further, I need to acknowledge authorship. As with the Water Coherence Collapse theory in From Volcanoes to Vitality, MB is again a co-author and again the senior author. This chapter carries his voice and his insights as much as mine.

Next, I must cite the work of the geochemists, biologists, physicists, and earth system scientists whose work informed ours, in particular Vernadsky, Cairns-Smith, Hazen, Russell, Lane, and Kappler, among others. Without them, our ability to make the connections below would have been impossible.

There are distinct contributing factors that set this theory apart from others. It did not emerge from a single discipline or even a single line of inquiry. Instead, it was created using AI tools to explore and connect numerous separate fields. More uniquely, it was also heavily influenced by a number of texts deciphered from antiquity, the contents of which, when integrated with those discovered using modern AI tools, form a coherent system with both bodies of work informing and extending the other.

Multidisciplinary synthesis alone has long been difficult in modern research, as geology, biology, biochemistry, and soil science tend to operate in relative isolation, with limited crosstalk between domains.

A parallel challenge involved bridging the interpretive distance between modern scientific language and ancient technical descriptions. That work required months of careful translation and cross-referencing, ultimately allowing a complete cosmological cycle to come into view.

Orientation for the Reader

Now, to readers who may not come from a scientific background or feel naturally drawn to scientific material, I ask for both patience and attention. Know that this is the only chapter that leans heavily on scientific concepts, but rest assured, what follows does not require technical mastery.

It asks only for conceptual engagement. You do not need to retain granular details of how each component operates. What matters is that you grasp the overall sequence and recognize the boundary between modern cosmology, the universe as it is currently framed, and the point at which we believe this work extends that frame.

This chapter has been written and rewritten with unusual care to communicate complex ideas in a way that rewards attention without requiring technical mastery. I trust the reader will find that care reflected in its clarity.

The Closed Mineral Cycle

We did not set out to uncover a unifying theory of Earth's life cycle. Instead, because of our ever-increasing fascination with the unique mineral extract that first drew MB into 20 years of study, with me arriving later but synthesizing rapidly, our collaboration began exploring multiple domains independently, following each observation as it arose.

The coherence we discovered emerged months later, once the texts from antiquity were deciphered and juxtaposed. What our efforts exposed was a closed system: a geochemistry that governs mineral formation and activation, gives rise to biological function, and then returns, intact in its logic, to the rock from which it came. After which the cycle begins anew.

A core concept is that the discrete mineral chemistry that science has identified as present in biotite rock, and has argued to be the origin of life on Earth, also constitutes its first energy system. That same mineral chemistry is then mobilized by water and transferred into living organisms, where it is reorganized to perform work: moving electrons and protons, sustaining gradients, powering metabolism, and enabling structure. At the end of life, that same chemistry then shifts roles. Water is again the agent, but now its main role is to dissolve, transport, and redistribute the same minerals and carbon back into the ground, where the cycle restarts, unchanged in principle only in form.

This is a “recursive process,” a term that bears defining here: “a process that uses its own output as part of its next input.”