ALIVENESS: PRINCIPLES OF TELIC SYSTEMS

A physics-based framework for diagnosing and engineering telic systems—from civilizations to artificial intelligence to the self.

This work wagers that the rise and fall of civilizations, the alignment of artificial intelligence, and the flourishing of individual consciousness are not separate problems. They are scale-invariant manifestations of the same underlying physics.

Until now, civilizational decay has been illegible—patterns without coordinates, dynamics without measurement. This framework provides the diagnostic tools to make decay legible and therefore engineerable.

Any intelligent system—human, alien, or artificial—must navigate four inescapable physical dilemmas. The solutions it chooses determine its trajectory.

It is a V1.0 theoretical synthesis, offered for adversarial critique and collaborative refinement.

Executive Summary

This book presents a new, unified framework for diagnosing and engineering complex adaptive systems, arguing that the dynamics of civilizational rise and fall, the alignment of artificial intelligence, and the flourishing of individual consciousness are scale-invariant manifestations of a single, universal physics of "Aliveness." It derives a four-dimensional coordinate system, SORT (Sovereignty, Organization, Reality, Telos), from four inescapable physical trade-offs any telic system must navigate, providing a diagnostic tool that replaces flawed one- and two-dimensional political frameworks.

Part I: The Diagnosis installs the SORT toolkit and introduces the Iron Law of Coherence: a system at war with itself (Low-Ω) cannot be a net creator of order (High-Α+).

Part II: The Autopsy diagnoses the modern West as a Chimera—a coherent parasitic Interface ruling over a fragmented Substrate. It generalizes this into the Four Horsemen, a universal theory of civilizational collapse triggered by success.

Part III: The Source Code derives the Four Axiomatic Dilemmas from thermodynamics and proves the Trinity of Tensions applies to any intelligent system. It establishes the Four Foundational Virtues (IFHS: Integrity, Fecundity, Harmony, Synergy) as optimal solutions through convergent validity—showing civilizational physics and AI alignment independently arrive at identical principles.

Part IV: The Blueprint engineers the Athenian Commonwealth—a novel civilizational model with a 3-Layer Architecture (Heart, Skeleton, Head) and Liquid Meritocracy governance designed to embody the Four Virtues and escape historical failure modes.

Part V: The Integrated Human applies the holographic principle to individual psychology, diagnosing the Mask (counterfeit personality) as the primary cause of low personal coherence and providing engineering protocols for building an Internal Polity.

For detailed chapter-by-chapter summaries, see Comprehensive Summaries.

Download

Full Book:
Aliveness: Principles of Telic Systems (PDF, 1.7 MB, 820 pages)

Individual Parts:

• Part I: The Diagnosis (166 KB, 70 pages) — The broken compass • SORT framework • System dynamics
• Part II: The Autopsy (176 KB, 71 pages) — The American Chimera • Hospice axiology • Four Horsemen of decay
• Part III: The Source Code (443 KB, 190 pages) — Physics of Aliveness • Trinity of Tensions • Holographic synthesis
• Part IV: The Blueprint (303 KB, 125 pages) — Foundry imperative • 3-Layer Polity • Liquid Meritocracy • The Great Work
• Part V: The Integrated Human (167 KB, 64 pages) — Physics of the self • The Mask • Unmasking protocols
• Appendices (656 KB, 296 pages) — 13 appendices in 3 parts: The Canonical Reference • The Applied Praxis • The Research Frontier

Additional Resources:

• Executive Summary — Concise 1-page overview of all five parts
• Comprehensive Summaries — Detailed chapter-by-chapter breakdowns with key arguments and contributions
• LessWrong Discussion — Compressed version and community discussion

Core Thesis

The framework rests on a single foundation:

Any telic system (goal-directed, negentropic agent) must solve four axiomatic dilemmas imposed by physical reality:

1. The Thermodynamic Dilemma (T-axis): Conserve energy to maintain state (Homeostasis) vs. expend surplus to grow (Metamorphosis).
2. The Boundary Problem (S-axis): Define self-boundary at individual level (Agency) vs. collective level (Communion).
3. The Information Strategy (R-axis): Use cheap historical models (Mythos) vs. costly real-time data (Gnosis).
4. The Control Problem (O-axis): Coordinate via decentralized emergence (O-) vs. centralized design (O+).

These four trade-offs generate the SORT framework (Sovereignty, Organization, Reality, Telos)—a coordinate system for any telic system's axiological configuration.

From these, three universal computational problems emerge: the Trinity of Tensions:

• World Tension (Order vs Chaos) — How to model reality under uncertainty
• Time Tension (Future vs Present) — How to allocate resources across temporal horizons
• Self Tension (Agency vs Communion) — How to define optimization boundaries

The optimal solutions to these problems are the Four Foundational Virtues:

• Integrity — The Gnostic pursuit of a truthful Mythos (R-axis solution)
• Fecundity — Stable conditions enabling new growth (T-axis solution)
• Harmony — Minimal design unleashing maximal emergence (O-axis solution)
• Synergy — Individual agency serving collective flourishing (S-axis solution)

Aliveness is the state achieved when a system continuously practices all four virtues simultaneously.

The Iron Law of Coherence

A system with low internal coherence (Ω) cannot produce sustained constructive action (Α+).

This is logical necessity. Internal conflict consumes the energy required for external work. Synergy is the precondition for Syntropy.

This law operates at all scales: civilizations, organizations, AI systems, individual psyches.

What This Framework Enables

Civilizational decay has been illegible—no coordinate system, no quantified dynamics, no named mechanics.

SORT provides coordinates. Ω/Α quantifies dynamics. The Four Horsemen name decay patterns.

What you can diagnose, you can treat. What you can measure, you can engineer.

For Civilizations: Diagnose current state, predict trajectories, engineer durable institutions immune to historical decay patterns (the Athenian Commonwealth blueprint).

For AI Alignment: Ground alignment in universal physics rather than arbitrary human preferences. The same computational constraints that govern civilization-building govern AGI safety. Appendix K provides the complete technical monograph.

For Personal Integration: Apply the same holographic physics to individual consciousness. Diagnose the "Mask" (counterfeit pSORT), understand the Four Horsemen of personal decay, execute unmasking protocols to achieve coherence (Ωₚ).

Epistemic Status

This is theoretical synthesis—pattern recognition across compressed historical knowledge, analogous to Darwin's work on evolution.

The SORT coordinates are V1.0 estimates requiring empirical validation. Think of them as a physicist's symmetry-based predictions, not rigorously measured data points.

Judge this work on its explanatory power, generative utility, and ability to bootstrap productive research—not on the precision of individual scores.

Methodology

This synthesis emerged through Composite I—a human-AI collaborative methodology. The human provides strategic direction and integration. The AI (primarily Gemini 2.5 Pro) provides extended working memory and pattern recognition across compressed knowledge.

Appendix D documents the complete methodology, including protocols for auditing AI-generated synthesis.

Structure

Part I: The Diagnosis — Demolish broken Left/Right frameworks. Install SORT diagnostic toolkit. Derive Α-Ω phase space and Iron Law.

Part II: The Autopsy — Apply tools to dissect the dying West. Diagnose the American Chimera. Isolate the Hospice pathogen. Prove the universal Four Horsemen of civilizational decay.

Part III: The Source Code — Descend to first-principles physics. Derive the Four Axiomatic Dilemmas. Prove the Trinity of Tensions is universal for any intelligence. Establish holographic scale-invariance. Derive the Four Virtues as optimal solutions.

Part IV: The Blueprint — Engineer the solution. Prove the Foundry Imperative via systematic elimination. Design the 3-Layer Polity. Specify Liquid Meritocracy governance. Provide strategic roadmap (The Great Work).

Part V: The Integrated Human — Apply holographic principle to individual consciousness. Diagnose the Mask (counterfeit pSORT). Provide unmasking protocols. Engineer the Internal Polity.

Appendices — Complete lexicon, scoring rubrics, falsification protocols, case studies, AI alignment monograph, psychological framework comparisons, research frontier.

Core Insights

The framework offers these starting points for research:

1. The Iron Law holds empirically: No civilization has maintained high constructive action (Α+) with low internal coherence (Ω) for more than one generation.
2. Universal decay pattern: All historical civilizational collapses follow the same cascade: Victory → Abundance → Four Horsemen → Collapse.
3. AI-Civilization convergence: Catastrophic AI failure modes map systematically to the same violations that cause civilizational decay (IFHS framework).
4. Architectural convergence: Independent first-principles analysis of civilization-building and AI alignment converge on identical structural requirements (3-Layer Architecture, IFHS).

These aren't final truths—they're productive starting points. Use them. Test them. Build better alternatives.

The Axiological Wager

Why Aliveness rather than paperclips or oblivion?

1. Performative: Any system asking this question is already doing Aliveness. It's the precondition for having values at all.
2. Possibility Space: IFHS maximizes future optionality—the choice to preserve choice itself.
3. Convergent Evidence: The same principles emerge independently from civilizational flourishing, AI safety, biological adaptation, and subjective phenomenology.

The choice is existential, not logical. But if you choose to continue existing as a coherent agent, here is the physics of how to do it well.

For the AI Safety Community

Appendix K provides a self-contained technical monograph on AI alignment via the physics of Aliveness. Key contributions:

• A non-arbitrary alignment target (IFHS) grounded in thermodynamics and information theory, not human preferences
• Proof that any AI must solve the Trinity of Tensions—identical to the computational problems facing civilizations
• Systematic mapping of known AI failure modes to IFHS violations
• Engineering specifications: 3-Layer Architecture for AI systems, Liquid Meritocracy for AGI lab governance
• Analysis of conditional protection: why IFHS-aligned AGI would have structural incentives to preserve humanity

This framework offers contributions to the "what" and "why" of alignment. Robust operationalization remains an open problem.

For Researchers & Collaborators

The mission: Make the physics of telic systems a tractable, non-neglected field.

This V1.0 framework is a catalyst—designed to bootstrap serious research, not to be the final answer. The highest form of success would be for this work to become obsolete because the research community has built superior alternatives.

You can contribute by:

• Testing predictions against historical and contemporary data
• Applying the framework to new domains and edge cases
• Using Appendix C protocols to validate or refine key claims
• Deriving alternative frameworks from different theoretical foundations
• Building competing models that supersede this one entirely
• Extending the work in new directions (Appendix J documents initial formulas)

Critiques that identify genuine failures are contributions. Alternative frameworks that replace this one would be the ultimate contribution.

Citation

Plain text:
Kunnas, E. (2025). Aliveness: Principles of Telic Systems. https://aliveness.kunnas.com/

BibTeX:

@book{kunnas2025aliveness,
  title={Aliveness: Principles of Telic Systems},
  author={Kunnas, Elias},
  year={2025},
  url={https://aliveness.kunnas.com/}
}

On the Mission: Building a Field

The central aim is to demonstrate that the physics of telic systems is a tractable, neglected, and existentially important domain that deserves serious research investment.

Whether this V1.0 framework proves correct, gets superseded by better alternatives, or serves as a "wrong but generative" catalyst matters less than whether it makes this area no longer neglected.

Mission accomplished if:

• This work becomes obsolete because a thriving research community has built superior tools
• It proves wrong but inspires the right questions
• Elements prove correct and get integrated into a broader synthesis
• Someone builds something better that replaces this framework entirely—this would be the highest form of success

The goal is to bootstrap serious work in a domain where civilizational survival may depend on getting the physics correct—where almost no one is currently looking.

The author's commitment: work on this domain until it is no longer neglected. At that point, the mission is complete—regardless of whether this framework survives.

Source & Contact

GitHub Repository: github.com/eliask/aliveness
LaTeX source files, build scripts, and website code.

Author: Elias Kunnas
Contact: first name at last name dot com
Date: October 2025
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (Attribution-ShareAlike) — full text

"The framework is a wager that what you find through deep introspection—the experience of Wonder and the conditions that generate it—is not merely personal, but a pointer to a universal, structurally necessary truth."