Timothy Speed (2025)
This paper formulates the concept of the diversity threshold as a critical model for emergent systems. Rather than treating diversity simply as a count of elements, it defines diversity as a topology of the possibility space capable of sustaining multiple incommensurable modes simultaneously. Once above this critical folding threshold, systems are able to generate new reality – innovation, resilience, and self-organization – whereas below it, efficiency without future, growth without worldhood, and collapse prevail. ([zenodo.org](https://zenodo.org/records/17847399))
This framework integrates evolutionary, ecological, and complexity theories without replacing them, and shows how diversity is not a passive result of emergence but its necessary cause. Above the threshold, emergent phenomena arise; below it, systems fail to transition into novel modes of organization. ([zenodo.org](https://zenodo.org/records/17847399))
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17847399
Keywords: diversity threshold, emergent systems, incommensurability, phase transition, world-formation, modality divergence, self-organization, complexity physics, evolutionary discontinuity
Download full paper (PDF, Zenodo)
This page provides a static landing page for an academic paper archived on Zenodo. No cookies, tracking, analytics, or user interaction are used. The content is provided for scholarly documentation purposes only. Author identification and contact context are available via the linked DOI and ORCID records.