Boundary-Induced Morphogenetic Phase Transitions in Living Systems

Classical evolutionary and developmental models predominantly rely on gradualism—the accumulation of infinitesimal, continuous adaptations. This paper challenges that paradigm by formalizing Boundary-Induced Morphogenetic Phase Transitions as structurally necessary, discontinuous reconfigurations in living systems. Within the framework of Thermodynamic Narrative Ontology (TNA), we demonstrate that abrupt structural shifts are not stochastic anomalies but deterministic projections from the non-collapsed structural domain (aleph_1) into observable states (aleph_0), triggered by sharp alterations in external boundary conditions. The proposed model reconciles thermodynamic irreversibility with structural emergence, providing a computationally tractable alternative to Darwinian gradualism. We argue that apparent randomness in biological systems is epistemic rather than ontological—a "representational noise" arising from incomplete boundary knowledge. This is illustrated through extreme empirical cases, including the survival of neural structures under high-energy particle intrusion (the Bugorski case), the adaptive reorganization of Chernobyl’s biota, and the Cambrian explosion. By relocating randomness from ontology to epistemology, this work establishes that living systems do not merely adapt through incremental error; they reorganize through phase transitions when environmental constraints cross critical thresholds.