Constraint–Flow Theory (CFL) Version 1.1 — Clarifications & Boundary Refinements Jan 14, 2026

No changes to core axioms, definitions, scope, or falsifiability criteria. This version introduces clarifying language in response to early external feedback, without expanding theoretical commitments. Updates: Path dependence and lock-in clarified: Distinguishes minimum total resistance from minimum local resistance; introduces shallow vs. deep local minima, hysteresis, and coordination barriers. This accounts for persistent but suboptimal structures (e.g., QWERTY, biological kludges, institutional inertia) as predicted CFL outcomes rather than exceptions. Role of stochastic noise refined: Noise is treated as domain-specific variance injection that can either reinforce existing attractors (when buffered) or enable basin escape when perturbations exceed barrier thresholds. Extreme-scale boundaries restated: CFL applies to repeated routing of conserved quantities under constraint and loss. It does not attempt to explain single-event origins, pre-decoherence quantum dynamics, or cosmology as a whole, though coarse-grained applications may exist where iteration and dissipation occur. Conceptual toy model added (descriptive): A minimal graph-based framework (nodes, edges, loss, reinforcement, noise) illustrating convergence, lock-in, and shock-induced basin hopping. No simulation results are claimed. Rationale: These clarifications improve legibility, pre-empt common misreadings, and preserve CFL’s parsimony and substrate neutrality.