Open Questions¶

Living log. Add the date and origin (case, chapter, conversation) to each entry. Close with a resolution, never delete.

Definitions¶

Q1. Function cost. How to define and compare it across functions (exergy? time? constraint?) — needed for transitions. Origin: 250.
Q2. Routing complexity metric. Something that tracks evolutionary history better than throughput (Chaisson). Origin: 210.
Q3. Leverage measurement. Ratio, qualitative scale, or proxy? Origin: 210, protocol step 3.
Q4. Self-maintenance criterion. Precise statement of D2 at organizational levels. Origin: 210.

Q5. Care work and art. Do they reduce to maintaining/steering humans as dissipative structures, or is a function missing? Origin: 310.
Q6. Claim-moving work. Is it a separate category (control-layer friction) or a subtype of allocation? Origin: 310.
Q7. Mixed transitions. Agriculture and the internet are both E and I. Is the E/I split useful, or should events be described by function-cost vectors? Origin: 250.
Q8. AI's placement. Full transition or extension of computing? What evidence would decide? Origin: 250.

Q9. Is there evidence that selection favors higher dissipation even against self-maintenance? (If yes, the maximization view returns.) Origin: conversation.
Q10. Systems with high surplus and weak selection that stay lean for long periods: if common, what internal selection mechanism explains them (culture, design discipline)? Origin: 240.

Q11 (reframed 2026-10-01). Are S/R/E the minimal set of exergy-allocation demands faced by any persistent dissipative structure with heredity, under (a) finite exergy inflow across its boundary and (b) non-stationary gradients? Original wording ("from thermodynamics alone") fails: thermodynamics has no persistence criterion. Review sketch: S derivable (high), R medium, E partial (physics explains why E triggers, not what it buys). Parked. Origin: 920, TC-agent review.
Q13. Storage/deferral as a fourth demand. Does P6 (life stores and defers) always reduce to existing functions/contours or accumulations, without remainder? Origin: TC-agent review.
Q14. Time constants as an operational handle. Can decay rate, copy/throughput cycle and gradient-shift rate define function cost (Q1) and predict what gets cut first under scarcity? Origin: TC-agent review.
Q12. Invariant layer. Resolved 2026-10-01: invariant = physics + selection logic. See decisions log. Origin: TC-agent review.

Date	Decision
2026-10-01	Physics is the only invariant; the model above it is dynamic
2026-10-01	Money is a metrics system, not a resource; not expanded further
2026-10-01	TC stays adjacent until a stronger physics relationship is researched
2026-10-01	Purpose: internal analytical lens first; public after usefulness validation
2026-10-01	Invariant layer = physics + selection logic (Q12); commitment 1 amended, P11–P13 added
2026-10-01	TC correspondence table revised (conditions ≠ contours); Q11 reframed