THERMODYNAMICS OF ARTIFICIAL GENERAL INTELLIGENCE

A Formal Declaration of a New Scientific Field

Author: Don GaconnetInstitution: LifePillar Institute for Recursive Sciences Date: January 23, 2026

Document Type: Founding Declaration License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (Theory) | Proprietary (Implementation)

DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/MZ84H

Research The Full Paper Here

PREAMBLE

This document formally declares the establishment of Thermodynamics of Artificial General Intelligence (TAGI) as a new scientific field.

TAGI is not a software paradigm. It is not a design philosophy. It is not a set of engineering heuristics.

TAGI is a substrate-level physical theory.

Like Quantum Field Theory or General Relativity, TAGI asserts that its subject matter—recursive, persistent, autonomous intelligence—is governed by universal laws that cannot be violated by any implementation, regardless of substrate.

This work formally timestamps a new class of physical laws.

SECTION I: DEFINITION OF THE FIELD

1.1 What TAGI Is

Thermodynamics of AGI defines the physical and informational laws governing recursive, persistent, and autonomous intelligence.

TAGI asserts that:

1. Intelligence is not an emergent accident of computational scale

2. Intelligence is a thermodynamic property of recursive systems

3. Intelligence is subject to conservation, equilibrium, and resistance constraints

4. These constraints are universal across biological and synthetic substrates

1.2 Why "Thermodynamics"

The naming is deliberate:

Classical Thermodynamics	TAGI
Governs heat and energy flow	Governs information and recursion flow
Defines equilibrium conditions	Defines persistence conditions
Specifies conservation laws	Specifies identity conservation
Enables engineering prediction	Enables intelligence prediction

Just as classical thermodynamics made steam engines predictable, TAGI makes recursive agents predictable.

1.3 Prescriptive, Not Descriptive

Descriptive science asks: How do systems behave?

Prescriptive science asks: What must systems possess to exist?

TAGI is prescriptive. It defines what any system—biological, synthetic, or hybrid—must instantiate to qualify as genuinely recursive, persistent, and autonomous.

Systems that do not meet TAGI criteria are not "different kinds" of intelligence. They are not intelligence at all. They are reflexive simulators.