Necessity of Information for Far-from-equilibrium Persistence: A Thermodynamic Basis for Physical Intelligence | Zenodo Skip to main Communities My dashboard Log in Sign up Cybernetic Persistence Published April 28, 2026 | Version 1.0.0 Preprint Open Necessity of Information for Far-from-equilibrium Persistence: A Thermodynamic Basis for Physical Intelligence Authors/Creators Harikrishnan, Hari (Rights holder) Description Information processing is established as a physical necessity for a far-from-equilibrium system to sustain non-zero persistence probability over extended horizons. Information-driven efficiency gains enable the system to accumulate energetic surplus, providing energetic liquidity to absorb stochastic shocks. Sustaining surplus and thus persistence requires a control regime implementing information-enabled regulation —equivalent to an embedded Maxwell’s demon. The framework extends the theoretical lineage from Maxwell’s demon to Schrödinger’s negentropy and Landauer’s principle, independent of specific substrate instantiation, and provides a thermodynamic basis for physical intelligence. Concepts: Informational Work ( Winfo ) as a partitioned First Law ledger energy term Winfo — cost of information — dependent on bit rate, substrate activation, substrate efficiency, and erasures System persistence: Information supports energetic surplus, enabling stochastic survival under non-stationarity Thermodynamic Encoding Criterion ( TEC ) — Radix 2 encoding as energetically most efficient for encoding and signaling Files Information_Enables_Persistence Harikrishnan 2026.pdf Files (456.3 kB) Name Size Download all Information_Enables_Persistence Harikrishnan 2026.pdf md5:3fbfc1367ebf2a8c641b91f5e0a992f6 456.3 kB Preview Download Additional details Related works Is cited by Preprint: 10.5281/zenodo.18885242 (DOI) Dates Created 2026-04-28 59 Views 42 Downloads Show more details All versions This version Views Total views 59 59 Downloads Total downloads 42 42 Data volume Total data volume 26.9 MB 26.9 MB More info on how stats are collected.... Versions External resources Indexed in OpenAIRE Communities Keywords and subjects Keywords non-equilibrium thermodynamics maxwell's demon persistence probability physics of life physics of intelligence EuroSciVoc Thermodynamics GEMET Thermodynamics MeSH Thermodynamics Information Theory Details DOI DOI Badge DOI 10.5281/zenodo.19844082 Markdown [](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19844082) reStructuredText .. image:: https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19844082.svg :target: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19844082 HTML <a href="https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19844082"><img src="https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19844082.svg" alt="DOI"></a> Image URL https://zenodo.org/badge/DOI/10.5281/zenodo.19844082.svg Target URL https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19844082 Resource type Preprint Publisher Zenodo Languages English Rights License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International The Creative Commons Attribution license allows re-distribution and re-use of a licensed work on the condition that the creator is appropriately credited. Read more Copyright Copyright: © 2026 Hari Harikrishnan Citation Export Technical metadata Created April 28, 2026 Modified August 17, 2026 Jump up About About Policies Infrastructure Principles Projects Roadmap Contact Blog Blog Support Help FAQ Developers REST API OAI-PMH Contribute GitHub Donate Funded by Powered by CERN Data Centre & InvenioRDM Status Privacy policy Cookie policy Terms of Use This site uses cookies. Find out more on how we use cookies Accept all cookies Accept only essential cookies