Recent advances in nonequilibrium statistical physics have provided unprecedented insight into the thermodynamics of dynamic processes. The author recently used these advances to extend Landauer’s semi-formal reasoning concerning the thermodynamics of bit erasure, to derive the minimal free energy required to implement an arbitrary computation. Here, I extend this analysis, deriving the minimal free energy required by an organism to run a given (stochastic) map π from its sensor inputs to its actuator outputs. I use this result to calculate the input-output map π of an organism that optimally trades off the free energy needed to run π with the phenotypic fitness that results from implementing π. I end with a general discussion of the limits imposed on the rate of the terrestrial biosphere’s information processing by the flux of sunlight on the Earth.
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- The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution
- Wolpert, David (Author)
- ASU-SFI Center for Biosocial Complex Systems (Contributor)
- Digital object identifier: 10.3390/e18040138
- Identifier TypeInternational standard serial numberIdentifier Value1099-4300
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Wolpert, D. (2016). The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution. Entropy, 18(4), 138. doi:10.3390/e18040138