Description
Every living cell is a computer, and physics charges it rent. Landauer’s principle sets the floor: no bit can be erased for less than kBT ln 2 of dissipated energy. Today’s cells pay a thousand times that minimum. This book asks a simple question — can evolution close the gap? — and proves that it can.
Starting from five physically motivated axioms, the framework introduces the biological Landauer number Λ_bio — the ratio of actual to minimum dissipation per bit — and derives an evolutionary convergence theorem: under sustained energy limitation, natural selection drives Λ_bio → 1. Quantum coherence accelerates the approach. A resource-theoretic apex theorem places this result within modern non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, connecting it to Rényi second laws and thermodynamic uncertainty relations.
Five quantitative predictions — from bacteria in the deep subsurface operating near Λ_bio ≈ 1, to a quantum advantage in photosynthetic light-harvesting, to the thermodynamic cost of aging — are developed with full uncertainty budgets and Bayesian falsification criteria. The theory is designed to be wrong in a useful way: every prediction specifies exactly what experimental outcome would refute it.
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