Infotropy: A Research Program Charter Preprint
Abstract
This charter declares the scope, claims, boundaries, and governance of the Infotropy research program. Infotropy reads the formal identity between Shannon information entropy and Boltzmann thermodynamic entropy as a window into how constraints generate records across domains. The program's contribution is a specific integration: six named diagnostic tools derived from a single mathematical identity, organized under a four-layer claim stack separating established mathematics from interpretive synthesis, a contested causal-structure hypothesis, and a practical diagnostic toolkit. The charter is a foundation statement providing citeable infrastructure for subsequent publications. It does not prove any empirical claim, settle any philosophical debate, or present experimental results.
Claims
- Foundation statement for the Infotropy research program
- Six named diagnostic tools derived from the Shannon/Boltzmann identity
- Four-layer claim stack separating established mathematics (C1), interpretive synthesis (C2), contested causal hypothesis (C3), and practical toolkit (C4)
- Boundaries and governance documented as first-class components
Non-Claims
- Does not prove any empirical claim
- Does not settle any philosophical debate
- Does not present experimental results