From Physical Difference to Meaning: A Constructor-Theoretic Framework for Prebiotic Information in Casimir-Lifshitz-Coupled Protocell Clusters

TL;DR

This paper introduces a physical framework based on Constructor Theory to understand how information and meaning could emerge prebiotically within protocell clusters, emphasizing reproducibility and functional stability.

Contribution

It presents a novel physical and theoretical model linking prebiotic information, meaning, and proto-semantic functions using Casimir-Lifshitz-coupled protocell clusters.

Findings

Protocell clusters exhibit reproducible attractors and ordered transitions.

Clusters carry informational states like geometries and gradients.

Clusters demonstrate functional states that regulate prebiotic tasks.

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.