Life as a Thermodynamic Regulator: Rewiring of Dissipation Channels and Phase Transitions in an Agent-Based Model

Life is traditionally understood as a dissipative structure that accelerates entropy production by converting free energy into heat. Here we present an agent-based model combining spatial energy diffusion with adaptive metabolic agents, and demonstrate that life can fundamentally alter not only the amount but also the pathways of energy dissipation. Our simulations show that biological agents suppress physical diffusive frictional heat (heatDiff) by up to 97\%, redirecting dissipation into controlled metabolic heat production (heatAct). By sweeping energy inflow rate and metabolic cost, we construct a phase diagram revealing a transition between a suppression phase, where life reduces total dissipation, and an acceleration phase, where dissipation exceeds that of the purely physical system. These results suggest that life should be interpreted not merely as a dissipative structure, but as a thermodynamic regulator that actively reorganizes dissipation channels to stabilize non-equilibrium environments. An interactive simulation is available at https: //my-life-sim. vercel. app/