  There does not exist a general positive correlation between important
life-supporting properties and the entropy production rate. The simple reason
is that nondissipative and time-symmetric kinetic aspects are also relevant for
establishing optimal functioning. In fact those aspects are even crucial in the
nonlinear regimes around equilibrium where we find biological processing on
mesoscopic scales. We make these claims specific via examples of molecular
motors, of circadian cycles and of sensory adaptation, whose performance in
some regimes is indeed spoiled by increasing the dissipated power. We use the
relation between dissipation and the amount of time-reversal breaking to keep
the discussion quantitative also in effective models where the physical entropy
production is not clearly identifiable.
