From Physical Difference to Meaning: A Constructor-Theoretic Framework for Prebiotic Information in Casimir-Lifshitz-Coupled Protocell Clusters
TLDR
This paper uses Constructor Theory to model how information and meaning could emerge prebiotically in Casimir-Lifshitz-coupled protocell clusters.
Key contributions
- Defines prebiotic information as reproducible physical difference and meaning as functional consequence via Constructor Theory.
- Introduces Casimir-Lifshitz-coupled protocell clusters as a minimal model for information emergence.
- Shows these clusters exhibit reproducible attractors, ordered transitions, and autonomous task structures.
- Demonstrates clusters carry informational and meaningful states regulating prebiotic tasks like exchange.
Why it matters
This paper offers a novel physical framework for understanding how information and meaning could arise before biology. It integrates physics, computational mechanics, and early proto-semantic functions, providing a coherent account of life's origins. This is crucial for understanding fundamental aspects of life's emergence.
Original Abstract
This paper develops a physical framework for the prebiotic emergence of information and meaning. Building on Constructor Theory, we define information as a reproducible physical difference and meaning as a difference with stable functional consequences. Casimir-Lifshitz-coupled protocell clusters serve as a minimal model that exhibits reproducible attractors, ordered transitions, and autonomous task structures. We show that such clusters carry both informational states (e.g., distances, geometries, gradients) and meaningful states that regulate prebiotic tasks such as approach, exchange, or stabilization. This approach integrates physical mechanisms, computational mechanics, and early proto-semantic functions into a coherent account of information formation before biology.
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