Theory of Coupled Entity Life: Redefining Life via Functional Coupling and Space-Securing of Code and Execution Substrates

[Abstract]Conventional biology and cognitive science have long regarded a single living organism—characterized by its own metabolic system and an independent physical body—as the sole paradigm of life. Under this traditional framework, however, it is impossible to integrally explain the autonomous and adaptive operations exhibited by non-cellular structures such as the Tobacco Mosaic Virus (TMV), or informational structures including languages, concepts, and programs executed within computing platforms. Instead of defining life as an attribute of specific physical matter, this paper redefines life as a "systemic operational state" itself—a state that continuously manifests functional processes of interacting with the external environment, defined by three operational requirements: "Boundary Maintenance," "Internal-Origin Identification & Connection," and "Irreversible State Change." Furthermore, this paper decouples the constituents of systemic operations into "Code" and "Execution Substrate," proposing the concept of the "Coupled Entity"—a system wherein both constituents functionally couple to initiate systemic operations. On this basis, we structurally elucidate the space-securing mechanism within a coupled entity as both permanent spatial possession through development and differentiation in integrated coupled entities, and effective control of control lines under dynamic equilibrium with resistance upon code attachment and introduction in external coupled entities. Finally, through analyses of TMV (biological) and linguistic concepts (informational), this paper reveals that diverse systemic changes—ranging from individual morphogenesis and bodily construction to host pathology and cognitive shifts—are inevitable "structural consequences" emerging as the coupled entity maintains and fixes its own operational state. While this paper systematizes the macroscopic dynamics of life as a whole, the axiomatic system and operational process defining the minimal single-cycle operational event for the aforementioned three requirements are formulated in the parallel paper, Theory of Functional Agency. The two papers have a complementary relationship, serving as the modeling of micro-level operational processes (Theory of Functional Agency) and the dynamic framework of macroscopic expansion (Theory of Coupled Entity Life), respectively. [Japanese Title]