CMEM Framework Application: A Structural Diagnostic of Modern Education Systems under E ≥ G Conditions

CMEM Framework Collection Link This work applies the CMEM (Cognition–Metabolism–Energy Model) framework to diagnose modern education systems as structural contributors to widespread fertility decline and rising depression rates. Rather than treating education, mental health, and demographic change as independent social issues, this analysis demonstrates that they emerge from a shared systemic condition: sustained dominance of external energy input and pressure (E) over biological and cognitive regulation capacity (G). Under prolonged E ≥ G conditions, education systems function as continuous energy injection interfaces, amplifying stimulation, evaluation, and future-oriented uncertainty while suppressing recovery, rhythm, and long-horizon meaning construction. Fertility decline is interpreted not as a moral or cultural failure, but as a rational system-level withdrawal from irreversible long-term investment under instability. Depression is analyzed as a protective downregulation state, signaling regulatory exhaustion rather than pathology. This paper presents a structural diagnostic only. It does not propose policy interventions or ethical prescriptions. Its purpose is to clarify system behavior, identify lock-in dynamics, and provide a coherent framework for understanding how modern education systems participate in broader civilizational imbalance under energy-dominant conditions.