Operational Friction Theory: Race-Opening, Recursive Resolution, Manifested Behaviour, and Thermodynamic Termination
Pødenphant Lund, T. (2026n) · Preprint · Live on Zenodo
Compulsive behaviour, OCD, tics, stress-driven habits, and burnout-trajectory are hypothesised within the framework to share one mechanism: accumulated race-pressure unable to reach thermodynamic termination. Four operational components specified (race-opening, recursive resolution, manifested behaviour, thermodynamic termination). Behaviour itself reframed as “manifested resolution-route”: a theoretical proposal, not an established consensus. Empirical adequacy of the cross-condition unification is under active investigation.
| DOI | 10.5281/zenodo.20059876 |
| Target venue | Cognitive Science (primary) |
| Status | Preprint live |
| Author | Tomas Pødenphant Lund [ORCID] |
TL;DR
Friction Theory establishes that friction exists in any race-architecture substrate; this paper specifies how friction is operationally resolved. The mechanism has four components:
- Race-opening — the threshold for initiating a race. The substrate must decide "should I open a race at all?" — equivalent to asking "is there friction-disorder that needs resolution?"
- Recursive resolution — multi-scale simultaneous resolution, not a two-stage pipeline. The same race-resolution machinery operates at multiple abstraction-scales at once, with the outcomes at finer scales constraining (but not determining) coarser scales.
- Manifested behaviour — the route that wins becomes observable action. Behaviour is reframed as a manifested resolution-route: not a separate cognitive output, but the visible expression of which route won its race.
- Thermodynamic termination — the cost of clearing the race. Accumulated blocked-race-pressure has thermodynamic consequences (burnout, exhaustion, collapse).
Behaviour-as-manifested-resolution is the foundational restructuring. It explains compulsive behaviour, OCD, tics, stress-driven habits, and burnout-trajectory as one mechanism: when accumulated race-pressure cannot be resolved through normal commit channels, it manifests as repeated rehearsals of partial resolution-routes (tics, compulsions) or as system-level collapse (burnout).
The paper draws empirical evidence from at least 9 papers in the Friction Theory series, with cross-paper anchor table in §8.
Why this paper exists
Paper 1 (Friction Theory) establishes the substrate-universal claim: friction is the cost of probabilistic computation in any system satisfying the race-axioms. Paper 10 establishes the inverted-U signature deductively. The remaining question: by what mechanism does the resolution actually happen?
This paper specifies that mechanism, operationally, not metaphorically. The four components are intended as testable mechanism-level specifications, not as a description of how cognition feels from the inside.
Companion papers
- Paper 1 (Friction Theory) — substrate-universal foundation; this paper specifies the operational mechanism
- Paper 0 (BFT) — biological instantiation; behaviour-as-manifested-resolution has direct BFT implications for compulsive/stress-driven patterns
- Paper 10 (Race all the way down/up) — substrate-universal inverted-U; this paper specifies the operational substrate dynamics that produce it
- Paper 8 (Clinical intervention) — clinical applications of behaviour-as-manifested-resolution (in preparation)