Order from Resonance_ Why Entropy Is a Symptom, Not a Law

CODES Framework Abstract This paper reframes entropy as a symptom of coherence failure rather than a fundamental law of nature. Building on the Resonance Intelligence Core (RIC) framework, we introduce the multiharmonic Phase Alignment Score (PAS_h) as the unique scalar invariant of coherence across system size (N) and frequency scaling (ω). Collapse is deterministically detected when PAS_h < θ_legal or when drift, measured by ΔPAS_zeta, exceeds ε_drift. Classical entropy laws (Boltzmann, Shannon, Prigogine) are recovered only as degenerate cases when PAS_h → 0. Through worked examples in physics (hurricanes), chemistry (Belousov–Zhabotinsky oscillations), biology (metabolic cycles), neuroscience (neural synchrony), and institutions (legal contradictions), we demonstrate that persistence and collapse are lawful coherence events, not statistical anomalies. Entropy is thereby demoted from ontological law to derivative metric.