Structural Loop Theory: How Contradiction Produces Deterministic Behaviour Across Cognitive, Biological, Organisational, and Computational Systems (zenodo ready)

This paper presents Structural Loop Theory, a general systems framework explaining why rule‑driven architectures across cognition, biology, organisations, and computation exhibit repetitive, self‑reinforcing behaviour. The theory identifies contradiction—specifically, a mismatch between a system’s governing rules and the content those rules must process—as the structural cause of escalation failure. When escalation is blocked, the system cannot transition to a resolving state; instead, it resets and repeats, producing deterministic loops that appear intentional but are mechanistically inevitable. The framework unifies a wide range of phenomena—cognitive rumination, trauma repetition, compulsive behaviour, bureaucratic stagnation, ant death spirals, algorithmic freeze states, and ecological collapse cycles—under a single architectural principle. It formalises how contradiction produces deterministic loops, why these loops persist, and how they can be dissolved through structural realignment and the introduction of higher‑order rules capable of processing conflict. By reframing repetition as a structural property rather than a malfunction or psychological weakness, the theory provides a cross‑domain explanation for systemic stuckness. It further positions contradiction‑resolution as a foundational capability for meta‑intelligence: the ability of a system to understand, modify, and improve the rule sets that govern its own behaviour. This establishes Structural Loop Theory as both a diagnostic tool for analysing failure modes and a design principle for building systems capable of self‑correction and adaptive change.