Primordial Behavioral Theory (PBT) proposes that all animal behavior, emotion, and social structure emerges from a unified arousal architecture grounded in the Primordial Drive Potential (Π) —a single integrated departure signal from encoded baseline, biologically implemented by the Locus Coeruleus–Norepinephrine system. The framework derives fear, attachment, love, creativity, institutional structure, and the full emotional hierarchy from first principles through a six-layer generative stack. Scale invariance is claimed: the same architecture operates at neural, organism, colony, and civilizational levels. The theory specifies the Law of Environment Associated Calibration governing ecological tuning across species, the Principle of Minimum Arousal-Time governing behavioral output selection, and the Two-Mode Output Architecture (deliberation versus retrieval) governed by the Deliberation Threshold (ThresholdD). Twenty-six falsifiable predictions are specified with methodologies. UPDATE DISCLOSURE Document Evolution Notice The original edition of this work, published March 2026, comprised Parts I through IV: Part I — The Origin, the Claims, and the Architecture Part II — The Evidentiary Foundation and Formal Architecture Part III — The Data Archive: Cross-Kingdom Evidence, Anomaly Resolution, and Open Questions Part IV — The Feasibility Boundary: What a Complete PBT Would Require This expanded edition, published May 2026, adds Part V and Part VI, representing a significant theoretical deepening of the PBT architecture. What Changed Parts I–IV established nociception (P) and novelty-detection (C) as co-equal, co-initialized primitives operating through intensity-weighted associative encoding. This formulation was correct as a functional description of a running system. It was incomplete as a generative foundation. Parts V–VI ground the entire architecture in a deeper substrate: the Primordial Drive Potential (Π) —a unified, measurable, biologically addressed arousal variable that precedes and necessitates both P and C as its two valenced reading strategies. The two primitives are re-derived as two faces of a single coin (the LC-NE substrate), with formal asymmetry established: P as the dominant, mandatory, fast, and systemically organizing signal; C as the optional, slower, and locally organizing signal. The framework now includes: Layer 0: The thermodynamic substrate (Π) Layer 1: The valenced primitives (P and C as Π-loaders) Layer 2: The Two-Mode Output Architecture (ThresholdD-governed) Layers 3–5: The associative, social, and institutional emergent stack The Law of Environment Associated Calibration is completed with three formal levels (species, developmental, agentic). The Bar Accumulation Effect, Third State, and Principle of Minimum Arousal-Time are newly formalized. Eleven additional falsifiable predictions are specified. All claims in Parts I–IV remain intact where not explicitly refined. The update does not contradict prior work—it completes the generative foundation that prior work presupposed but did not name.
Wilson Banarjee (Tue,) studied this question.