Malignant Operational Closure: The Fractal Topology of Systemic Capture

We propose a formal definition of systemic malignancy in complex adaptive systems, termed Malignant Operational Closure (MOC). We define MOC not behaviorally, but topologically: as a state where a subsystem achieves statistical conditional independence from the global viability of the host, while continuing to load the host’s finite resource budget (metabolic, cognitive, or economic). We formalize this using Directed Information (Transfer Entropy) decoupling combined with a Control Cost barrier derived from the Girsanov theorem. We demonstrate that malignancy in cognitive, biological, and organizational systems (specifically “addiction,” “cancer,” and “institutional corruption”) can be modeled as structural homologies under a strict cross-scale mapping. This paper operationalizes the Global Viability Functional (Y )—defined as net durable build—and provides a rigorous audit harness for distinguishing malignant loops from benign modularity.