I35f. FROM SHELF LIFE AND RELIABILITY TO CROSS-DOMAIN METROLOGY OF VIABILITY

Shelf life of a product, reliability of a technical object, viability of a cell, resilience of an ecosystem, and the ability of a dynamic system to remain within an admissible state space are measured using different methods and have different operational definitions. Thus, particular aspects of functional preservation, resilience, and viability are already objects of quantitative investigation. Existing measures, however, belong to different domains, rely on different primary quantities, and do not automatically constitute a common metrology of viability. This paper investigates whether a cross-domain measurable coordinate can be defined that does not replace existing physical, chemical, biological, or other quantities, but instead characterizes the relation of a system's state to its operationally defined domain Norm and to subsequent viability. The candidate construct considered is the HNU — Harmony Norm Unit. At the present stage, HNU is not declared to be an established universal unit and is not proposed as a new unit of the International System of Units, SI. Instead, the conditions are formulated that a candidate HNU must satisfy before it can be distinguished from an arbitrary normalization of existing indicators. For this purpose, the Cross-Domain Metrological Gate (CDMG) is proposed. It includes domain validity, operational correspondence, prospective validity, added discriminatory capacity, negative-control discrimination, anti-surrogacy, normalization robustness, and independent cross-domain reproducibility. The central hypothesis is not that different systems possess identical physical properties, but that a common measurement relation may exist: Measured State → Domain Norm → Relative State → Subsequent Viability Conditions for falsification are explicitly formulated. If candidate HNU provides no reproducible information about subsequent viability beyond strong domain-specific models, or if its apparent cross-domain meaning is determined by arbitrary mathematical normalization, the hypothesis of a common measurable viability coordinate is not empirically supported. Keywords: Vitology; viability; metrology; HNU; Harmony Norm; Scientific Subtraction; A9DDC; CDMG; cross-domain measurement; reliability; shelf life; resilience; domain norm; added discriminatory capacity.