Dynamic Harmony Structural Stress-Test Series. This paper examines the thermodynamic boundary conditions that constrain the emergence of organized systems. The analysis evaluates how energy flow, dissipation, and environmental coupling influence the stability and persistence of emergent structures. Using the Phase Non-Substitutability Test introduced in Paper 0 and the architectural boundary criterion developed in Paper 0B, the paper analyzes whether thermodynamic processes can generate genuine architectural redefinition or whether they remain configurational transformations within an existing physical state space. The analysis clarifies the structural role of thermodynamic constraints in enabling or limiting the emergence of coordinated systems across physical and biological domains. This paper forms part of the Dynamic Harmony Structural Stress-Test Series, a research program that evaluates major theories of emergence across physics, biology, and complex systems through adversarial structural analysis.
James Scott (2026) studied this question.