We propose a falsifiable candidate thermodynamic condition for active living states: sustained counterfactual resistance to entropy growth on a pre-registered system boundary and observable manifold. The resistance rate compares the entropy-growth rate under a passive counterfactual with the rate under active dynamics. The earlier raw entropy-reduction rate remains useful for finite ordering episodes, but it is not a general criterion for homeostatic living states. Under Markovian dynamics with local detailed balance, the manuscript separates internal entropy production, entropy flux and continuous information flow. A bipartite regulated-system/controller construction certifies a mechanism for negative apparent subsystem entropy production while total entropy production remains positive. The broader Level-1 life criterion is explicitly presented as a testable hypothesis rather than a proved theorem or a sufficient definition of life. Numerical demonstrations include thermal-gradient and isothermal transport-gated autonomous models, an independently sampled modified-log-Sobolev diagnostic, thermodynamic-uncertainty-relation consistency checks, a boundary-safe Lorenz negative control, and exploratory selected-lag current-precision statistics for public single-molecule F1-ATPase traces. The biological statistics are descriptive and do not by themselves certify a finite-record TUR floor or measure the counterfactual gap. Version 16 corrects the thermal-rate implementation and total entropy-production value, removes Lorenz convolution edge artefacts, makes the MLSI search independent of the tested point, synchronizes bootstrap intervals and units with live R/Rust outputs, adds the measured bacterial heat-flow citation, and consistently labels the macroscopic criterion as a proposed candidate. The full pipeline was regenerated with Python, MATLAB, R, Rust and LaTeX.
Onur Ece (Mon,) studied this question.