I want to remind everybody how efficient molecular machinery is in terms of thermodynamics:
this molecule [RNA] operates quite near the limit of thermodynamic efficiency [7 kcal/mol] set by the way it is assembled [~10 kcal/mol].
and
these calculations also establish that the E. coli bacterium produces an amount of heat less than six times (220npep/42npep) as large as the absolute physical lower bound dictated by its growth rate, internal entropy production, and durability.
From an article Statistical Physics of Self-replication by Jeremy England
deriving a lower bound for the amount of heat that is produced during a process of self-replication in a system coupled to a thermal bath. We find that the minimum value for the physically allowed rate of heat production is determined by the growth rate, internal entropy, and durability of the replicator, and we discuss the implications of this finding for bacterial cell division, as well as for the pre-biotic emergence of self-replicating nucleic acids.
That said I think that there may be many sweet spots for a combination of macroscopic and microscopic processes. Many industrial chemical processes are such combinations by providing very specialized baths of nutrients and substrates and combining efficient macroscopic flow and transport with microscopic chemical and organic reactions. But there may be more spots that allow for efficiently building up small-scale structures.
I want to remind everybody how efficient molecular machinery is in terms of thermodynamics:
and
From an article Statistical Physics of Self-replication by Jeremy England
That said I think that there may be many sweet spots for a combination of macroscopic and microscopic processes. Many industrial chemical processes are such combinations by providing very specialized baths of nutrients and substrates and combining efficient macroscopic flow and transport with microscopic chemical and organic reactions. But there may be more spots that allow for efficiently building up small-scale structures.