Shandong Evolutionary Model Chapter 11 Elimination Test: Logical Self-Consistency Screening of Global Candidate Regions
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This chapter implements the exclusion method established in Chapter 10 by applying it to all candidate areas nominated as the original site of modern human emergence under a unified parameter framework. The candidate set C comprises eleven regions: Africa, Europe, West Asia (the Levantine corridor), North Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia (Sunda), the Japanese archipelago, Southwest–South China, the Amur (Heilongjiang) basin, the North China Plain, and critically the Luxi (The western part of Shandong Province; this article primarily refers to the Liaocheng region) region of western Shandong, which is included as a self-examination item and judged by exactly the same criteria as its competitors; it is not granted any privilege. This chapter defines eight operational criteria (K1: minimum viable body size; K2: reproductive energy surplus; K4: geothermal anomaly; K5: evidence chain of continuous presence; K6: morphological proximity; K7: thermal-stress forcing, referred to as “MPT thermal stress threshold pressure” in Chapter 10; K8: traversability of migration corridors; K3: explicitly stated to be inapplicable to MIS 4–2). “Exclusion” is categorized into three types: biophysical exclusion (independent of LSED), necessary-condition exclusion (dependent on LSED), and “temporarily not selected” (lacking exclusionary force). Two rules are preset: K5 indicates evidentiary sufficiency only, never outputs a negative verdict, and never triggers exclusion; K6 serves only for phylogenetic placement and is not used for exclusion. The principal results are threefold: First, after ΔT localization (Southeast Asia’s K1 revised from ✗ to ?) and the reclassification of K2, no LSED-independent biophysical exclusion survives—every exclusion in this chapter is a framework-internal necessary-condition exclusion, a fact stated explicitly in Conclusion 11.12.2(c) rather than concealed. Second, the Amur basin—the source of the framework’s own molecular evidence (Mao et al., 2021b, Cell; AR33K→AR14K, 33–14 ka)—is deliberately brought into the candidate set and is excluded solely on K4, with the explicit proviso that the place where selection occurred is not the place of initial emergence. Third, no✗ was detected during Luxi’s self-inspection; however, K1 and K2 were recorded as having insufficient data, and K6 was flagged as having missing materials. The confirmed advantage rests on K4(a)(b)(d) ∧ K7 (K4(c) pending; K7 definition revised from “approaching from above” to “reaches or falls below the threshold interval”). The chapter’s central finding is therefore expressed not as “nine regions excluded, one survivor” but as a conjunction test: on the K4 × K7 plane, Luxi is the unique double ✓, whereas Southwest–South China is “thermal without forcing” (K4 ✓, K7 ✗) and the North China Plain is “forcing without thermal” (K4 ✗, K7 ✓). This 2 × 2 configuration depends neither on the evidential sufficiency of K5 and K6 nor on the body-size data of K1 and K2, and thus constitutes the most attack-resistant statement the chapter can make. Its supporting geological basis is the North Segment of the Liaocheng–Lankao fault: a low Quaternary slip rate (0.12–0.35 mm/a) combined with a deep, connected geothermal conduit (heat flow 68 mW/m²; geothermal gradient 5.3 °C/100 m; Ordovician karst reservoir interval 800–1000 m) yields the highest stability index S among all regions compared, the advantage residing in the denominator (slow tectonics) rather than in the heat-flow value itself. Conclusion: This candidate site is identified as the “most likely phase-change location that has not been ruled out” within Candidate Set C, rather than as a “full” proof of its existence in the past. “Not ruled out” ≠ “existence has been proven”, and “most likely” ≠ “the only possible option”. The inference—from physical conditions to the existence of biological life—is explicitly anchored in conditions related to “physical habitability”, rather than in a Bayesian posterior probability supported by empirical evidence; the determination of existence-based evidence is supported by Chapter 8 (Levels 1–3 in Table 8-1) and Chapter 9 (Geothermal Exclusivity). Four limiting conditions (a–d) and eight global pre-registered counterexamples accompany the conclusion; furthermore, a degenerate path is specified for the scenario in which K4 is refuted. The chapter closes by naming its own argumentative architecture—Sieve-Residue Phase-Transition Symmetry-Breaking Structure,comprising three tiers (sieve-residue, conjunction, phase transition,corresponding to the initial, critical, and completion stages of symmetry breaking) and a five-stage chain (Domain of Death → Exclusion → Conjunction of K4 ∧ K7 → Phase Transition → Symmetry Breaking); the Extension Phase–Cultural Accumulation Phase (Tomasello’s Ratchet Effect) is explicitly designated as an independent layer that does not support any physical conclusion. The concepts of phase transition and symmetry breaking are here treated as structural analogies, rather than as claims about thermodynamic or physical symmetry breaking in the strict sense.the strict physical formulation is governed by the geometrical thermodynamics and minimum-entropy-production framework of Chapter 7. Four appendices are attached: Appendix 1 (Preprint Index Z1–Z30) and Appendix 2 (Verification of LGM temperature and geothermal–tectonic data, including a clear statement regarding data gaps); Appendix 3 (Methodological explanation for “Why the Exclusion Was So Smooth”); and Appendix 4 (Recording the contentious status of AMBN molecular evidence and the extent to which the framework depends on it).
Author: Zhang, Jing
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7214112209
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