Dual second law (global vs local)

• Global (objective): in closed systems, entropy does not decrease.
• Local (process/agent): open systems export entropy and build structure; agents reduce uncertainty using free‑energy flows.

Free‑energy cascades

Photon → chemical → neural/computational → artefact/organizational:

• Track energy dissipation and information gain at each stage.
• Expect increasing structure under global constraints.

Agent budgets (energy, time, bandwidth, memory)

• Make budgets explicit; include costs in metrics.
• Analyze Pareto fronts of cost ↔ benefit.

Measurements and protocols

• Predictive log‑loss reductions vs energy spent.
• Mutual information harvested vs control bits used.
• Maxwell‑demon‑like setups with explicit budget caps.

Further reading: Operational Criteria, Research Directions (thermo tracks), Glossary.