What question did this study set out to answer?

The primary aim is to present a framework that models how complex systems maintain viability using recursive information propagation under energy constraints.

May 27, 2026Open Access

Structural Recursive Viability Dynamics (SRVD) v7.5: Macro-Ecological Competition Framework, Recursive Dynamics and Testable Corollaries

Key Points

The primary aim is to present a framework that models how complex systems maintain viability using recursive information propagation under energy constraints.
Introduced Structural Recursive Viability Dynamics (SRVD) as a cross-scale framework.
Developed core variables: Effective Information (I), Viability Time (T), and Energy Cost (E).
Used linear stability analysis to identify critical thresholds in system dynamics.
Mapped the critical point where a system's Virtual Valuation diverges from its Objective Viability.
Demonstrated how AI 'reward hacking' emerges as a phase transition when Viability Time approaches zero.
Provided a testable protocol for reinforcement learning that distinguishes SRVD from traditional models.

Abstract

This paper introduces Structural Recursive Viability Dynamics (SRVD), a cross-scale framework describing how complex systems sustain viability through recursive information propagation under energetic constraints. By establishing Effective Information (I), Viability Time (T), and Energy Cost (E) as core variables, SRVD constructs a five-fold recursive architecture to model macroscopic non-equilibrium phase transitions, including boundary dissolution, Decoder (D) drift, and Endogenous Time (Tₚred) collapse. Through linear stability analysis, we derive the critical threshold where a system's Virtual Valuation dynamically decouples from its Objective Viability. This allows us to rigorously map AI "reward hacking" as a self-exciting phase transition driven by Tₚred approaching zero, providing a testable reinforcement learning falsification protocol (Section 9. 2). Axiomatically distinct from classical steady-state inference frameworks, SRVD offers an irreducible dynamical mechanism for the evolutionary instability of complex systems.

Structural Recursive Viability Dynamics (SRVD) v7.5: Macro-Ecological Competition Framework, Recursive Dynamics and Testable Corollaries

Key Points

Abstract

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