Energy and time determine scaling in biological and computer designs

Abstract

One contribution of 13 to a theme issue 'The major synthetic evolutionary transitions'. Metabolic rate in animals and power consumption in computers are analogous quantities that scale similarly with size. We analyse vascular systems of mammals and on-chip networks of microprocessors, where natural selection and human engineering, respectively, have produced systems that minimize both energy dissipation and delivery times. Using a simple network model that simultaneously minimizes energy and time, our analysis explains empirically observed trends in the scaling of metabolic rate in mammals and power consumption and performance in microprocessors across several orders of magnitude in size. Just as the evolutionary transitions from unicellular to multicellular animals in biology are associated with shifts in metabolic scaling, our model suggests that the scaling of power and performance will change as computer designs transition to decentralized multi-core and distributed cyber-physical systems. More generally, a single energy-time minimization principle may govern the design of many complex systems that process energy, materials and information.This article is part of the themed issue 'The major synthetic evolutionary transitions'.

Energy dynamics for systemic configurations of virus-host co-evolution

“…Conversely, healthy host-cell dynamics can be represented through a transient stationary state of relevant stocks (i.e., Q1, Q2A and Q2B). The use of energy as key parameter in modelling the virus-host co-evolution, at the level of the single cell, complies with the medical literature evidence, showing the relevance of energy as a descriptor of biosystems in medicine [68][69][70][71] .…”

Principles of Ecology Revisited: Integrating Information and Ecological Theories for a More Unified Science

“…This property allows transfer of information among entirely different material or energetic systems, allowing the structure and materials of information processing systems to be plastic without necessarily compromising information flow. Information processing systems are typically characterized by indeterminacy in channels, and plasticity in the particular flows of information confer stability on the processing network (Patten and Odum, 1981;Flack et al, 2006;Moses et al, 2016), much as MacArthur showed in his idealized food web (MacArthur, 1955). Information processing systems can adapt to changing conditions, often reversing structural patterns in ecological networks (MacArthur, 1955;Ulanowicz, 2001;Flack et al, 2006;Ulanowicz et al, 2009;Valdovinos et al, 2016).…”

Travel in city road networks follows similar transport trade-off principles to neural and plant arbors

“…Our work studies a specific example of this morphospace as instantiated by travel paths in cities. Moses et al [33] study trade-offs between minimizing delivery time and energy dissipation required for delivery of a resource, and they find scaling principles between the two in vascular networks and computer chip designs. Thus, while the idea of studying network design trade-offs across engineered and biological contexts is not new, our study instantiates these ideas in a specific domain of single-source transport systems.…”