A New Physics Theory of Life (2014)

The first living thing would have to be a self-replicating molecule that uses energy. Different forms of this self-replicating molecule would have different reproductive success.

There is a not-unpopular theory that the original form of life on earth was an RNA molecule. RNA is a special molecule, because it can both act as a store of data, and as an enzyme for catalyzing reactions. According to this theory, specialized data storage in the form of DNA evolved later, along with specialized enzymes.

Here's a brief overview of the theory that shows how evolution could happen with chains of RNA only: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1xnYFCZ9Yg

Jack Szostak at Harvard has a great series of videos explaining this theory, and also a number of experiments that he and his students have performed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPzWrv6l9l0

in general, no. E.g., a child with a high fever will dissipate more energy than a child without a fever over the same time period. who is more likely to survive?

We can even consider a specific type of dissipation that an organism uses to store memories (longer lifetime of memory = less reversible = requires more dissipation), there's no guarantee that the memories stored will be useful for survival. storing a memory that lasts 100 years costs dissipation that could be better spent elsewhere for an organism that typically lives 1 week...

but with appropriate restrictions on what is meant by dissipation, organism, ... the timescales involved, the driving ... then the reverse statement can be true "more likely evolutionary outcomes" "are going to be the ones that absorbed and dissipated more energy from the environment’s external drives on the way to getting there.”