Coherence as the Governing Invariant of Persistence_ A Unifying Principle Beneath Physics, Biology, Mind, and Value
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Supersession Note — May 2026 This January 2026 paper is an exploratory predecessor to the author’s current identity-persistence program. It is retained as an orientation document, not as the canonical technical statement. The current canonical stack is: Universal Identity and Persistence — A Forcing Theorem for Identity Under TransformationIdentity Persistence CalculusA Mathematical Theory of Identity PersistenceA Coding Theorem for Identity Persistence Claims in this record concerning coherence beneath physics, biology, mind, value, intelligence, evolution, ontology, or universal failure should be read as developmental framing. The current formal claim is narrower and stronger: where identity persistence under transformation is coherently asserted, the regime must supply explicit admissibility structure, recurrence comparability, invariant quotienting, bounded drift, and scalar or scalar-equivalent governance. This record should therefore be read historically: it names the intuition that later work formalizes, but it is not the final proof surface. Abstract Why do some systems persist over time while others abruptly collapse? This paper advances a single, pre-theoretic claim: systems persist if and only if they maintain coherence under disturbance; collapse occurs when drift exceeds recoverable bounds. This principle is not a competing theory within physics, biology, cognition, or ethics. It sits prior to them. Each of these paradigms presupposes persistence—particles that remain identifiable, organisms that remain alive long enough to reproduce, minds that remain continuous enough to learn—but none defines what makes persistence possible in the first place. By naming coherence explicitly as a governing invariant, identity ceases to be primitive and failure ceases to be narrated only after the fact. The paper shows how diverse failures—mechanical, biological, cognitive, and organizational—share a single structural form, and why minimal phase-based structure is required for persistence at all. The treatment is intentionally non-technical and public-facing; formal definitions, measurements, and proofs appear in companion technical work. The goal is clarity: to make explicit a condition long assumed but rarely articulated, and to situate existing theories within the regimes where they apply. (Note this is an intuitive explainer, see rest of the work for technical details.)
Author: Bostick, Devin
Language: English
Topic: Complex Systems and Dynamics
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7119465420
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