Memory Before Biology: Emergence of Persistent Informational Structures in a Pre-Biological Planetary System

This study investigates whether memory-like behavior can arise in a pre-biological environment absent neural structures, molecular storage, or engineered architecture. Using a theoretical planetary-scale informational system governed by causal interaction, entropy flow, and global stability selection, we observe the spontaneous emergence of persistent informational motifs that resist noise, recur after perturbation, and reactivate over time. These structures exhibit operational memory without cognition, representation, or biological substrates. The results suggest that memory may precede life as a fundamental organizational property of complex systems, providing a potential informational scaffold for later chemical and biological evolution.