BOUNDED COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS THEORY A Mathematical Framework for Cross-Scale Coherence and Trauma-Induced Decoherence

Abstract This paper presents the Bounded Communication Systems Theory (BCST), a mathematical framework that formalises bounded relationships as information channels with measurable coherence constraints, channel capacities, and homeostatic maintenance costs. BCST operationalises the foundational axiom that a bounded relationship is communication across all scales, from quantum entanglement through molecular signalling, neural oscillation, symbolic abstraction, and artificial intelligence token prediction. The framework extends the dynamical systems model of consciousness and trauma presented in the companion paper (Zenodo Record 18688527) by providing the information-theoretic substrate. Trauma is recharacterised as cross-scale channel capacity collapse—a fold bifurcation in communication space where boundary integrity between biological scales (microbiome, enteric nervous system, vagus nerve, central nervous system) degrades below the critical threshold required for coherent attractor maintenance. Re-coherence is formalised as an optimal control problem: restoring channel capacity above the bifurcation point through boundary repair at the lowest biological scale. The paper specifies: (i) a cross-scale communication Lagrangian; (ii) the gut-brain axis as a specific multi-scale channel with bacterial quorum sensing as the primary sender; (iii) SSRI/psychopharmacological intervention as bacterial-vagal channel restoration rather than neurotransmitter deficit correction; (iv) the HATI² evaluation framework reinterpreted as channel quality metrics; and (v) four falsifiable predictions linking microbiome composition, vagal tone, and attractor dynamics. The framework is mathematical, observational, and explicitly falsifiable. It does not address the metaphysical origin of subjective experience. It specifies the communication-theoretic conditions under which coherent experiential integration is dynamically sustainable.