The Nondegenerate Existence Framework: Information Preservation and Organizational Emergence in Physical and Biological Systems

Information preservation is proposed as a foundational principle for understanding the emergence, persistence, and evolution of complex structures across physical and biological domains. The framework is based on the concept of Nondegenerate Existence (NDE), which assumes that organized existence requires the preservation of distinguishability and excludes perfectly degenerate states lacking differentiation and relational structure. Starting from this principle, a hierarchical model of organizational emergence is developed. Distinctions generate relations, relations generate organizational constraints, and these constraints give rise to invariant structures, persistent entities, and evolving networks of interactions. Within this perspective, stable entities are interpreted as organizational invariants maintained through distinguishable informational states. Concepts commonly associated with physical systems, including action, energy, momentum, chirality, and finite propagation limits, are reinterpreted as emergent consequences of nondegenerate organization rather than fundamental primitives. The framework further extends to biological systems, where molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and organisms are described as nested Entity Networks that preserve distinguishability across multiple organizational levels. Information is understood not as a fundamental ontological primitive but as an emergent consequence of relational differentiation. Although primarily conceptual, the proposed framework provides a unified perspective in which physical and biological evolution represent successive manifestations of information preservation, organizational invariance, and the emergence of complexity. This manuscript is submitted as a preprint and has not yet undergone peer review.