Based on the concept of thermodynamic inversion (TI), the role and place of geothermal energy (including thermal and high-frequency fluctuation energy) in the process of the emergence of the biosphere is considered, and a comparison is made with an alternative solar power source. From the standpoint of the general thermodynamics of systems, the appearance of signs of a living state in nonliving organic systems means a transition from the prevalence of the entropy contribution in the system (S_c > F_c) to the relative prevalence of the free energy contribution (S_c < F_c). Such a transition can only occur in conditions far from equilibrium in the presence of different-rank oscillations of physical and chemical parameters in the environment (temperature, pressure, chemical, and electrical potentials, etc.). Their range must include high-frequency (short-period) oscillations that bring maximum energy to the prebiotic system. Such conditions exist in hydrothermal systems during the fluid migration to the surface. Five stages of the origin of primary living cells have been identified. In the initial stages (1–3), which occurred in the subsurface areas of hydrothermal systems, self-assembly of organic microsystems and their primary evolution to the level of protolife (subcells with a primary protein-synthesizing apparatus without DNA) occurred due to geothermal energy. With the exit of subcells on the surface in geothermal regions, life (as we know it) emerged due to the involvement of solar energy into the process: a cell growth cycle appeared and formed a genetic apparatus (4–5).

Now there is a huge variety of scenarios of prebiotic chemical evolution, culminating in the emergence of life on Earth, which demonstrates the obvious insufficiency of existing criteria for a reliable consideration of this process. This article develops the concept of thermodynamic inversion (TI concept) according to which the real succession of the formation of metabolism during the origin of life is fixed in the stages of the exit of a resting bacterial cell from anabiosis (suspended animation), just as the succession of events of phylogenesis is fixed in ontogenesis. The deepest phase of anabiosis considers by us as an intermediate state of a microorganism between non-life and life: it is no longer able to counteract the increase in entropy, but retains structural memory of the previous living state. According to the TI concept, the intermediate state between non-life and life thermodynamically corresponds to the approximate equality of the total contributions of entropy and free energy in prebiotic systems (S_c ≈ FE_c). Considering such intermediate state in prebiotic systems and microorganisms as a starting point, the authors use the experimentally recorded stages of restoring the metabolic process when a resting (dormant) bacterial cell emerges from anabiosis as a guideline for identifying the sequence of metabolism origin in prebiotic systems. According to the TI concept, life originated in a pulsating updraft of hydrothermal fluid. It included four stages. 1) Self-assembly of a cluster of organic microsystems (complex liposomes). 2) Activation (formation of protocells): appearance in the microsystems a weak energy-giving process of respiration due to redox reactions; local watering in the membrane. 3) Initiation (formation of living subcells): formation of a non-enzymatic antioxidant system; dawning of the protein-synthesizing apparatus. 4) Growth (formation of living cells—progenotes): arising of the growth cell cycle; formation of the genetic apparatus.