## Problem 300 — rank:329

**Title:** Number of independent origins of life on Earth

**Added binding assumptions (LaTeX):**

```latex
Permit $K=0$ when importation is allowed; extant terrestrial life alone does not establish a local origin within the chosen interval. If the model allows extra origins with no surviving descendants, no traces and no effects on recorded lineages, arbitrarily many such origins can be appended without changing the observable law. This is a known-by-construction non-identification result. An informative upper bound therefore needs explicit trace, survival or event-rate restrictions, not merely a prior favoring small counts.
```

**Direct edits:** 1. **Fresh external checks:** None; supplied sources retained as provenance.