Transient Dissipation and Structural Costs of Physical Information Transduction.
Phys Rev Lett
; 118(22): 220602, 2017 Jun 02.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28621996
ABSTRACT
A central result that arose in applying information theory to the stochastic thermodynamics of nonlinear dynamical systems is the information-processing second law (IPSL) the physical entropy of the Universe can decrease if compensated by the Shannon-Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy change of appropriate information-carrying degrees of freedom. In particular, the asymptotic-rate IPSL precisely delineates the thermodynamic functioning of autonomous Maxwellian demons and information engines. How do these systems begin to function as engines, Landauer erasers, and error correctors? We identify a minimal, and thus inescapable, transient dissipation of physical information processing, which is not captured by asymptotic rates, but is critical to adaptive thermodynamic processes such as those found in biological systems. A component of transient dissipation, we also identify an implementation-dependent cost that varies from one physical substrate to another for the same information processing task. Applying these results to producing structured patterns from a structureless information reservoir, we show that "retrodictive" generators achieve the minimal costs. The results establish the thermodynamic toll imposed by a physical system's structure as it comes to optimally transduce information.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Health_economic_evaluation
Language:
En
Journal:
Phys Rev Lett
Year:
2017
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States