Does Assembly A capture the total amount of selection?

Establish whether the Assembly quantity A, defined in Assembly Theory from the assembly indices and copy numbers of distinguishable objects in an observed ensemble, rigorously captures the total amount of selection required to produce that ensemble.

Background

Assembly Theory defines a quantity called Assembly, A, constructed from two observables: the assembly index (the minimal number of recursive joining operations to build an object from basic parts) and the copy number (the number of identical objects observed). The framework posits that combining these observables yields a measure of the amount of causation due to selection required to produce the observed configuration of matter.

The authors explicitly state a conjecture that A captures the total amount of selection that produced the ensemble, and emphasize this as a central claim to be examined both theoretically and empirically.