The Filtering Framework: A Guide to FUCSC, FPT, and FAL

This preprint provides a structured guide to the Filtering Framework, a unified operational approach to understanding life, behavior, and persistence across biological scales. The framework consists of three complementary components: Filtering Using Chemistry for Self-Continuation (FUCSC) — an operational definition of life based on active chemical filtering for self-continuation.[Link] Filtering Power Theory (FPT) — a quantitative model predicting comparative success of living systems via filtering capacity, fidelity, range, speed, and energetic cost.[Link] Filtering Accounting Law (FAL) — a thermodynamic constraint stating that persistence requires filtering benefits to meet or exceed energetic costs.[Link] The foundational FUCSC (Filtering Using Chemistry for Self-Continuation) paper, which forms the core of the Filtering Framework, underwent formal peer review at three respected scientific journals: Astrobiology, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres (OOLEB), and Biological Theory (Springer). Reviewers identified no fatal logical flaws, empirical contradictions, or fundamental errors in the framework. This guide clarifies scope, core definitions, conceptual hierarchy, and boundary conditions, resolving common misunderstandings and mapping how the three components integrate into a coherent mechanistic framework. It is intended as an orientation and reference document for researchers engaging with FUCSC-, FPT-, or FAL-based analyses, rather than as a source of new empirical claims. The paper does not redefine life, filtering, or energetic constraints, but consolidates and organizes previously introduced concepts to enable consistent application, interpretation, and future development.