The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution
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 r...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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MDPI AG
2016
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103532 |
| _version_ | 1811071709948674048 |
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| author | Wolpert, David |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Wolpert, David |
| author_sort | Wolpert, David |
| collection | MIT |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:55:14Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/103532 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:55:14Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1035322022-09-30T12:10:55Z The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution Wolpert, David Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics Wolpert, David 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. Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) (Grant No. FQXi-RHl3-1349) Templeton World Charity Foundation (Grant No. TWCF0079/AB47) 2016-07-05T18:30:26Z 2016-07-05T18:30:26Z 2016-04 2016-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1099-4300 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103532 Wolpert, David. "The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution." Entrophy 18:4 (2016), 138. en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/e18040138 Entropy Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf MDPI AG MDPI |
| spellingShingle | Wolpert, David The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution |
| title | The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution |
| title_full | The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution |
| title_fullStr | The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution |
| title_short | The Free Energy Requirements of Biological Organisms; Implications for Evolution |
| title_sort | free energy requirements of biological organisms implications for evolution |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/103532 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wolpertdavid thefreeenergyrequirementsofbiologicalorganismsimplicationsforevolution AT wolpertdavid freeenergyrequirementsofbiologicalorganismsimplicationsforevolution |