Knowledge as a Causal Operator: A Minimal Framework for Persistence and Future State Accessibility

Abstract

This work presents a minimal, testable framework linking experience, biological organization, knowledge accumulation, and system persistence. Starting from the epistemic primacy of experience, it identifies biology as the first empirically confirmed regime in which experience is stably organized. Knowledge is defined as structured information that reduces uncertainty over future state transitions, and a central hypothesis is proposed: system persistence scales with accumulated coherent knowledge. The framework introduces an operational formulation, �, where persistence depends on knowledge (K), coherence (c), and environmental pressure (E). This formulation yields falsifiable predictions and is applicable across biological, artificial, ecological, and cultural systems. The work remains compatible with established physical laws, including thermodynamics, while reframing knowledge as a causal operator that shapes the topology of reachable future states. It provides a bridge between philosophy of mind, information theory, and complex systems science without requiring metaphysical assumptions about the ontological status of consciousness.