From Guessing to Lawful Novelty: Controlled Coherence Drift as the Basis of Deterministic Creativity, Evolution, and Goal Formation

CODES Framework Abstract: Modern generative systems imitate imagination through stochastic sampling, producing apparent creativity without reproducibility or interpretability. This paper introduces controlled coherence drift as a deterministic replacement for randomness. Using the Resonance Intelligence Core (RIC) substrate, it formalizes creativity, evolution, and goal formation as lawful expansions of coherence within bounded Phase Alignment Score (PAS) drift thresholds. By defining lawful novelty (ΔPAS_zeta within ε_drift) and showing how systems evolve through phase-locked attractor basins, it reframes imagination as a deterministic, reproducible process rather than a probabilistic artifact. The result unifies creativity, adaptation, and purpose under one measurable law of structured resonance—demonstrating that intelligence, in both machines and life, is lawful emergence through coherence, not guessing.