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The Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
cond-mat.soft
January 18, 2025
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The Physics of Life: Exploring Information as a Distinctive Feature of Living Systems
Semantic thresholds. Semantic Information identifies “semantic thresholds” where only specific mutual information between an agent and its environment impacts viability. (a) The foundational study [14] introduced this concept through counterfactual simulations assessing viability as information is scrambled. (b) Forager models [40] demonstrated such thresholds by adding noise to food detection sensors, revealing a peak in viability per bit of information at the threshold. (c) Similar thresholds appear in biosphere models like Daisy-World, responding to stellar forcing [41]. — cond-mat.soft

This paper explores the idea that information is an essential and distinctive feature of living systems. Unlike non-living systems, living systems actively acquire, process, and use information about their environments to respond to changing conditions, sustain themselves, and achieve other intrinsic goals.

We discuss relevant theoretical frameworks such as “semantic information” and “fitness value of information”. We also highlight the broader implications of our perspective for fields such as origins-of-life research and astrobiology. In particular, we touch on the transition to information-driven systems as a key step in abiogenesis, informational constraints as determinants of planetary habitability, and informational biosignatures for detecting life beyond Earth.

We briefly discuss experimental platforms which offer opportunities to investigate these theoretical concepts in controlled environments. By integrating theoretical and experimental approaches, this perspective advances our understanding of life’s informational dynamics and its universal principles across diverse scientific domains.

Stuart Bartlett, Andrew W. Eckford, Matthew Egbert, Manasvi Lingam, Artemy Kolchinsky, Adam Frank, Gourab Ghoshal

Comments: 10 pages 4 figures 131 references
Subjects: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Information Theory (cs.IT); Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems (nlin.AO); Quantitative Methods (q-bio.QM)
Cite as: arXiv:2501.08683 [cond-mat.soft] (or arXiv:2501.08683v1 [cond-mat.soft] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.08683
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Submission history
From: Gourab Ghoshal
[v1] Wed, 15 Jan 2025 09:24:06 UTC (2,410 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.08683
Astrobiology

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻