A Modest Constraint-Based Account of Persistence in Living Systems

This document refines a constraint-based perspective on life, evolution, and intelligence, framing living systems as dynamically stable, far-from-equilibrium trajectories shaped by energetic, material, and ecological constraints. Persistence is understood as arising from the elimination of instability rather than from optimization alone, with selection operating within pre-structured spaces of viability. The framework also treats intelligence as an abstraction of constraint management, highlighting both its stabilizing role and its potential for systemic fragility.