Across scientific disciplines, systems occasionally undergo abrupt transitions where their internal dynamics cease to operate. Cosmological singularities, biological origin events, financial crises, and paradigm shifts all share a common feature: the breakdown of previously valid dynamical descriptions. This paper proposes a unified framework based on the structural limits of dynamical derivability. We argue that every dynamical system operates within a structurally admissible domain defined by conditions that are not generated by the dynamics itself. When system trajectories approach the boundary of this domain, the governing laws cannot generally be extended, leading to a structural rupture. By separating dynamical evolution from structural admissibility, the theory explains why catastrophic transitions are often retrospectively intelligible yet intrinsically difficult to predict from internal dynamics alone. The proposed framework provides a general theory of collapse applicable across physics, biology, economics, and technological systems.
Claudio Bresciano (2026) studied this question.