Self-organized criticality and information processing in gypsum–proteinoid assemblies

We present a detailed study of how gypsum helps form proteinoids and their electrochemical properties. Our findings show that mineral-organic hybrid systems can display self-organized critical dynamics. This behavior is similar to how biological systems process information. We made proteinoid-gypsum composites by heating glutamate, phenylalanine, and aspartate with calcium sulfate dihydrate. These composites exhibited spontaneous electrical oscillations that lasted more than $70$ hours without outside energy. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy showed a $20$-fold drop in impedance compared to pure proteinoids. Cyclic voltammetry revealed asymmetric redox behavior, highlighting a preference for oxidation processes. Power spectral density analysis revealed clear scaling regimes. At ultra-low frequencies, $\alpha = 2.96$. At intermediate frequencies, $\alpha = 1.64$. These values are typical for systems near criticality. The mean firing rate was $2.31 \times 10^{-4} \,\text{Hz}$. The average inter-spike interval was $72 \,\text{minutes}$. These values make these oscillations some of the slowest known spontaneous electrochemical oscillators. We used spectral analysis to map the system onto a cognitive control--schizotypy framework. This showed that the positioning aligns with balanced information processing skills. These findings suggest that prebiotic mineral-organic systems may have had computational properties even before cellular life existed. Criticality could act as a universal principle linking non-living and living matter.