The Bounded Corridor_Life as Persistence Under Joint Constraint

Abstract This work proposes a persistence-centered framework for reading biological systems across scales. Rather than treating optimization, efficiency, or fitness maximization as the primary explanatory primitives, it asks what conditions must be satisfied for a living system to remain itself while continuously changing. The central claim is interpretive rather than replacement-theoretic: biological systems become more legible when understood as persistence systems operating within coupled regions of joint constraint. Cells, tissues, organisms, and ecosystems are examined as systems whose governing variables must remain within simultaneously admissible ranges despite continual perturbation and material turnover. The framework is built upon an explicit separation between three layers: (1) a formal identity-persistence argument developed independently of biology, (2) a biological interpretation that applies persistence concepts to empirical systems, and (3) an empirical research program that proposes measurable consequences and falsifiable predictions. Throughout the work, claims are explicitly classified as established, derived, open, or refuted to preserve the boundary between formal results, interpretation, and speculation. Particular emphasis is placed on the distinction between sameness, similarity, and physical possibility; the role of persistence as a prerequisite for inheritance and selection; and the interpretation of aging, immunity, development, and ecological stability as manifestations of coupled constraint management. The work further proposes that many recurring biological structures can be understood as instances of search-space compression under shared physical constraints. This book does not propose a new biology, nor does it replace evolutionary theory, systems biology, or existing mechanistic accounts. Instead, it offers a unifying conceptual vocabulary for understanding life as persistence under joint constraint and outlines an empirical program for evaluating the utility of this perspective.