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Persistence

Persistence is the ontic property of a system occupying a region of effective state space such that transitions out of that region are statistically suppressed over time relative to characteristic noise.

A state is persistent when, under fixed driving and noise statistics, its expected dwell time exceeds the timescale of typical fluctuations. Persistence is a property of system dynamics, not of observation or description.

Persistence does not require permanence. It requires metastability.

Through this role, persistence:

• stabilizes distinctions against noise-driven decay,
• enables accumulation of causal history,
• makes records and memory physically possible.

Ontic core

Ontically, persistence exists when:

• system dynamics include constraints, barriers, or restoring structures that confine trajectories,
• escape from the region requires energetically costly or coordinated fluctuations,
• dissipation and loss of microscopic reversibility suppress return paths,
• transition rates are low relative to environmental noise timescales.

Persistence is therefore a dynamical property measurable via escape rates, lifetimes, and response statistics.

Relation to distinction

Persistence is a necessary condition for distinction.

Transient differences may occur freely through fluctuation.
A distinction exists only when a difference persists long enough to condition future dynamics.

Without persistence, differences do not accumulate.
With persistence, system history becomes causally relevant.

Relation to time

Persistence introduces an asymmetry between past and future:

• the present state encodes information about prior states,
• future evolution depends on that encoded trace.

Time does not cause persistence.
Persistence makes time observable.

Distillation

What does not persist cannot inform the future.

Why it matters

• Memory: Records require persistent physical substrates.
• Entropy: Entropic pressure erodes persistence unless countered by constraints and dissipation.
• Information: Bits exist only where persistence suppresses noise-driven transitions.
• RDD coherence: Separates transient fluctuation from historically meaningful change.

Links

Related atoms

• Constraint
• Entropy
• Persistent Distinction

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Used in molecules

Conflicts with

• Views that treat stability as instantaneous or purely descriptive.
• Accounts that conflate persistence with permanence.
• Interpretations that assume memory without physical suppression of noise.

Sources

• Source: Kramers, H. A. (1940). Brownian motion in a field of force.

  • Use here: Formal escape-rate treatment of metastable states.

• Source: Seifert, U. (2012). Stochastic thermodynamics.

  • Use here: Links metastability, dissipation, and irreversibility.

• Source: Parrondo, J. M. R., Horowitz, J. M., & Sagawa, T. (2015). Thermodynamics of information.

  • Use here: Persistence as a prerequisite for information processing.

• Source: England, J. L. (2013). Statistical physics of self-replication.

  • Use here: Persistence under driving and dissipation in far-from-equilibrium systems.

Re-contextualization Log

• 2025-12-29

  • context: Overlap between persistence, time, and distinction reduced explanatory clarity
  • effect: refined
  • note: Reframed persistence strictly as metastable suppression of transitions; separated its role from time and memory while preserving dependency relations.

• 2025-12-26

  • context: Alignment with Distinction and Entropy atoms
  • effect: clarified
  • note: Explicitly defined persistence via dwell times and escape rates rather than qualitative stability.