Coherence Theory

Everything that persists — atoms, organisms, companies, code — follows the same law: coherence must exceed cost.

THE SELECTION INEQUALITY

A pattern persists if and only if its coherence exceeds its weighted cost across three independent budget dimensions.

One framework. Every domain.

PHYSICS

A hydrogen atom persists because its quantum coherence exceeds its budget costs.

B_th = energy transport
B_cx = internal complexity
B_leak = radiation, decay
BIOLOGY

A species persists because its fitness exceeds its metabolic, predation, and mutation costs.

B_th = metabolic rate
B_cx = genomic complexity
B_leak = mutation, predation
YOUR STARTUP

Your company persists because your value exceeds your burn, complexity, and churn costs.

B_th = operational cost
B_cx = org complexity
B_leak = customer churn

Try it.

Drag any pattern on the selection plane. Above the line, it persists. Below, it dies.

Sel = 0Total BudgetCoherencepersistsdiesYour StartupSel = +0.25Competitor ASel = -0.03Competitor BSel = -0.33Side ProjectSel = -0.10Legacy SystemSel = -0.48

Drag the dots to see how selection changes.