Thermodynamics of Sovereignty: Friction Engineering, Capture by Energy Gradient, and the Domestication of Entropy in Complex Adaptive Systems

This article proposes Thermodynamics of Sovereignty as a branch of Sufficient Mirror Theory (SMT; Sandalo, 2026a), extending to adaptive systems the principle that the parent theory formalizes in the cognitive domain: suppressing friction does not liberate a system—it dissolves it. The central hypothesis holds that maintaining identity and agency—whether in a cell, a person, a complex system, or an ecosystem—requires continuous work against the tendency toward equilibrium, and that the relationship between friction dose and the capacity to maintain structure has the same form across different scales. The claim is not that these scales share an identical mechanism, but that they exhibit a homology of form: the article proposes a form of potentially universal scope, maps it onto four substrates, and formulates hypotheses by which it can be tested wherever measurement is possible. It connects three theoretical anchors—Prigogine's dissipative structures, hormesis (Calabrese), and Friston's free-energy principle—proposes a biphasic Sovereignty Equation (S) as a complement to the normalized coupling index β, and names the components of the proposed circuit: Capture by Energy Gradient (the engine), Signal Interception producing Constitutive Blindness (the lock), Refusal of the Instrument (the second loop), and Acquired Refractoriness (the counterweight). Replicator dynamics is proposed as an intermediate regularity linking the micro and ecological vectors. Read together, β and S distinguish three zones—inanition, sovereign, and rupture—and two coupling regimes: Entropic Symbiosis, formulated as a proposition, and Sovereign Coupling, its constructive, negentropic counterpart. In the meso vector, the Agency Fragility Index and Autonomous Degradation Index provide a measurement bridge between these zones and SMT's empirical program. The hormetic curve is proposed as an architecture cutting across four vectors: micro (adaptive therapy and the prion mechanism), meso (human-algorithmic coupling), macro (autonomy in complex systems), and ecological (intermediate disturbance), the last of which provides independently documented field convergence. This is a conceptual and exploratory document: it reports no original data, treats third-party evidence as interpretive convergence rather than validation, maintains the parent theory's declared heuristic use of “entropy,” and states nine falsifiable hypotheses outside the preregistered confirmatory set. This record contains the canonical English version and the Portuguese version. Project website: https://www.sufficientmirror.com