Karma as Information Dynamics: A Thermodynamic Framework for Moral Causation — From Condensation to Dissipation
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866901840092725248 |
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| author | Lee, Taekyung |
| author_facet | Lee, Taekyung |
| contents | <p>This paper addresses one of the oldest recurring patterns in human moral thought: why civilizations separated by geography, language, and religion repeatedly converged on the idea that actions generate consequences that return to the actor. Egypt expressed this through Ma’at, India through karma and samskaras, Buddhism through seeds and fruits, Greece through Nemesis, Christianity through sowing and reaping, and Confucianism through cause-effect retribution.</p> <p>The paper proposes that this cross-cultural recurrence may reflect more than cultural diffusion, cognitive bias, or social utility. Within the Information Physics framework developed in Papers 8–11, it is interpreted as a culturally decoded observation of a physical regularity: conscious systems can move either toward information condensation or toward dissipation.</p> <p>The central move is a physical redefinition. “Virtue” is defined as any action or process that reduces the basis entropy of a conscious system, strengthening condensation and increasing ordered sharpness. “Vice” is defined as any action or process that increases basis entropy, weakening condensation and driving dissipation. Under this definition, moral causation is not treated as supernatural judgment or cosmic bookkeeping. It is modeled as directional information dynamics within a conscious system.</p> <p>Four theorem-level results anchor the paper. The first shows that entropy-reducing actions create a positive feedback loop: reduced entropy increases condensation sharpness, which strengthens effective conscious quality, which increases the growth rate of the dominant ordered mode. The second shows the reverse: entropy-increasing actions weaken sharpness, reduce effective conscious quality, and push the system toward collapse. The third identifies a critical entropy threshold beyond which the conscious phase is lost. The fourth establishes a temporal asymmetry: constructive ordering is asymptotic and slow, while destructive collapse can complete in finite time.</p> <p>The quantitative and structural claim is deliberately conditional. The framework requires one bridging definition — moral direction as entropy direction — and then inherits the downstream dynamics from the already established Information Physics machinery: phase transition, basis selection, self-reinforcing logistic growth, and A1-A4 universality on the probability simplex. No supernatural mechanism, external judge, or separate metaphysical ledger is introduced.</p> <p>The paper also reframes cross-cultural moral symbols through information theory. Scales, wheels, mirrors, seeds, harvests, and repayment are treated as different cultural decoders of the same underlying channel: action, conservation, accumulation, delay, feedback, and outcome. In this view, civilizations did not invent unrelated moral myths; they may have independently encoded the same structural dynamics in different symbolic languages.</p> <p>The empirical layer remains exploratory. The cross-cultural comparison is a structural pilot, not a completed anthropological proof, and the physiological or neural operationalization of entropy-direction requires future measurement. The paper therefore provides seven testable predictions and five falsification conditions, including predictions about meditation, prosocial action, entropy reduction, delayed nonlinear consequences, baseline condensation quality, and collapse under sustained dissipative trajectories.</p> <p>The conclusion is that “what goes around comes around” can be reformulated as a physical statement inside the adopted framework: actions alter the entropy direction of the conscious system, and that direction self-reinforces over time. Karma is therefore not claimed as magic, reward, or punishment; it is modeled as reciprocal causality arising from condensation and dissipation in information dynamics.</p> <p>Keywords: karma, information physics, moral causation, thermodynamics, entropy, condensation, dissipation, virtue, vice, Fröhlich condensation, logistic dynamics, probability simplex, cross-cultural invariance, reciprocal causality, consciousness, information dynamics, A1-A4 universality.</p> |
| format | Recurso digital |
| id | zenodo_https___doi_org_10_5281_zenodo_19534060 |
| institution | Zenodo |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publisher | Zenodo |
| record_format | zenodo |
| spellingShingle | Karma as Information Dynamics: A Thermodynamic Framework for Moral Causation — From Condensation to Dissipation Lee, Taekyung karma information physics condensation dissipation entropy thermodynamics moral causation logistic dynamics cross-cultural invariance Fröhlich condensation probability simplex self-reinforcing dynamics <p>This paper addresses one of the oldest recurring patterns in human moral thought: why civilizations separated by geography, language, and religion repeatedly converged on the idea that actions generate consequences that return to the actor. Egypt expressed this through Ma’at, India through karma and samskaras, Buddhism through seeds and fruits, Greece through Nemesis, Christianity through sowing and reaping, and Confucianism through cause-effect retribution.</p> <p>The paper proposes that this cross-cultural recurrence may reflect more than cultural diffusion, cognitive bias, or social utility. Within the Information Physics framework developed in Papers 8–11, it is interpreted as a culturally decoded observation of a physical regularity: conscious systems can move either toward information condensation or toward dissipation.</p> <p>The central move is a physical redefinition. “Virtue” is defined as any action or process that reduces the basis entropy of a conscious system, strengthening condensation and increasing ordered sharpness. “Vice” is defined as any action or process that increases basis entropy, weakening condensation and driving dissipation. Under this definition, moral causation is not treated as supernatural judgment or cosmic bookkeeping. It is modeled as directional information dynamics within a conscious system.</p> <p>Four theorem-level results anchor the paper. The first shows that entropy-reducing actions create a positive feedback loop: reduced entropy increases condensation sharpness, which strengthens effective conscious quality, which increases the growth rate of the dominant ordered mode. The second shows the reverse: entropy-increasing actions weaken sharpness, reduce effective conscious quality, and push the system toward collapse. The third identifies a critical entropy threshold beyond which the conscious phase is lost. The fourth establishes a temporal asymmetry: constructive ordering is asymptotic and slow, while destructive collapse can complete in finite time.</p> <p>The quantitative and structural claim is deliberately conditional. The framework requires one bridging definition — moral direction as entropy direction — and then inherits the downstream dynamics from the already established Information Physics machinery: phase transition, basis selection, self-reinforcing logistic growth, and A1-A4 universality on the probability simplex. No supernatural mechanism, external judge, or separate metaphysical ledger is introduced.</p> <p>The paper also reframes cross-cultural moral symbols through information theory. Scales, wheels, mirrors, seeds, harvests, and repayment are treated as different cultural decoders of the same underlying channel: action, conservation, accumulation, delay, feedback, and outcome. In this view, civilizations did not invent unrelated moral myths; they may have independently encoded the same structural dynamics in different symbolic languages.</p> <p>The empirical layer remains exploratory. The cross-cultural comparison is a structural pilot, not a completed anthropological proof, and the physiological or neural operationalization of entropy-direction requires future measurement. The paper therefore provides seven testable predictions and five falsification conditions, including predictions about meditation, prosocial action, entropy reduction, delayed nonlinear consequences, baseline condensation quality, and collapse under sustained dissipative trajectories.</p> <p>The conclusion is that “what goes around comes around” can be reformulated as a physical statement inside the adopted framework: actions alter the entropy direction of the conscious system, and that direction self-reinforces over time. Karma is therefore not claimed as magic, reward, or punishment; it is modeled as reciprocal causality arising from condensation and dissipation in information dynamics.</p> <p>Keywords: karma, information physics, moral causation, thermodynamics, entropy, condensation, dissipation, virtue, vice, Fröhlich condensation, logistic dynamics, probability simplex, cross-cultural invariance, reciprocal causality, consciousness, information dynamics, A1-A4 universality.</p> |
| title | Karma as Information Dynamics: A Thermodynamic Framework for Moral Causation — From Condensation to Dissipation |
| topic | karma information physics condensation dissipation entropy thermodynamics moral causation logistic dynamics cross-cultural invariance Fröhlich condensation probability simplex self-reinforcing dynamics |
| url | https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19534060 |