Civilization as Informational Stabilization

Abstract: This paper proposes a generative reframing of civilization, moving beyond morphological definitions toward a functional analysis of informational dynamics. Civilization is defined as a regime of informational stabilization: a system-level consequence of stabilized representational and memory mechanisms that enable persistent coordination across temporal and spatial discontinuities. By isolating three foundational pre-structural conditions—Linguistic Coordination, Symbolic Abstraction, and Externalized Memory—this framework establishes that civilizational properties emerge when informational persistence exceeds biological retention capacities. The model enables a substrate-general analysis of order, facilitating the inclusion of non-biological agents (AI) as functional participants within civilizational architectures. Structural sovereignty is redefined as the maintenance of a "Latency Gap" between algorithmic intervention and biological reflective override.