The Hidden Law of Lifespan: Toward a Minimum Entropy Action Principle of Life and Civilization

This paper proposes a novel theoretical framework uniting biology, thermodynamics, and sociopolitical evolution under a single principle: the Minimum Entropy Action Principle. Drawing on empirical scaling laws in metabolism and lifespan, it hypothesizes that living systems—from organisms to civilizations—follow variational paths that balance entropy generation and semantic order production. In this model, lifespan is not random but emerges as a solution to a constrained optimization problem: minimizing entropy burden while maximizing systemic coherence. The paper formalizes this as an action functional and extends it from biological to civilizational scales, analyzing entropy collapse scenarios in the Qing dynasty, the Soviet Union, and contrasting the Ming Dynasty with the Meiji Restoration. We propose that civilizations die not from external shocks, but from failure to reorganize semantic structures under increasing entropy pressure. The work invites further exploration into whether a universal entropy-budget law governs the lifespan of systems across scales.