📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

Previously, we proved that any implementation of the concept of `copy number' underlying a hypothesis related to selection and evolution called Assembly Theory (AT) and its metric assembly index (Ai) claimed to unify biology and physics, is not fundamentally or methodologically different from Entropy-based algorithms like ZIP compression. Here we respond to new arguments that defend AT by showing some Ai's divergence from LZW for some specific provided examples. Here we show that the weak empirical correlation between Ai and LZW reported as evidence in favour of AT is based on incomplete and misleading experiments. When the experiments are completed and its behaviour is studied, fast asymptotic convergence to LZW compression and Shannon entropy is exhibited, in accordance with the mathematical proof previously offered, which remains undisputed. This contribution completes the theoretical and empirical demonstration that any variation of the copy-number concept underlying AT, which involves counting the number of repetitions in an object, such as a molecule, to arrive at a measure of life, is equivalent to popular statistical compression and Shannon entropy. We show that the authors' argument that the intractability of AT separates Ai from standard compression does not withstand basic scrutiny and that their empirical results separating organic from inorganic compounds have not only been previously reported, avoiding claims of grand unification between physics and biology, but are mostly driven by molecular length -- which the authors did not control for. This makes AT unsuitable and redundant, especially when applied to their own experimental data, on which we have proven that both Shannon entropy and LZ compression deliver equal or better results without the extra steps and the additional assembly jargon.