Establishing the temporal physics of Non-Archival Cognition through multi-domain falsification.
"For over a century, the cognitive sciences have operated upon a foundational yet unverified assumption: the archival premise. This research proposal introduces a radical and fundamental alternative: the Non-Archival Law of Cognition."
This is not a model of psychology or a theory of biology, but a statement of temporal physics that constrains all intelligent systems. The law states that cognition is not an act of preservation but of immediate transformation.
Experience has zero temporal persistence (Δt = 0). There is no measurable interval during which an event is held in a stable, unchanged state.
Informational load (I) must instantaneously decrease (dI/dt < 0). Forgetting is the active, necessary engine of intelligence.
No stable, high-fidelity neural representation will persist for any measurable interval (Δt > 0). All activity will show immediate reduction at sensory intake.
Experimentally enforced archival retention in both biological and artificial systems will lead to quantifiable decreases in coherence and stability.
Recall errors will not be random but systematically biased toward the subject's current weighted orientation, proving it is a generative act of the present.
Primary Theoretical Foundation
"Biological cognition cannot store or preserve experiential content across time. Experience begins transforming at the instant of occurrence, and informational complexity undergoes continuous, irreversible reduction. Forgetting is structural, not error."
Examines the mechanical physics of the zero-interval constraint and the maximum allowable delay between perception and recomputation.
Defines why continuous annihilation produces intelligence by eliminating noise faster than it forms, creating usable structure.
Memory is not access to past content; it is weighted relational direction produced by reduction, selecting what the next state becomes.