High Capability, Low Execution: A Causal Life Architecture of Finite State Maintenance Integrating Psychology, Neuroscience, Endocrinology, Stability Theory, and Artificial Agents

A robust and cross-cultural behavioral pattern is repeatedly observed: individuals with high cognitive capability, strong abstraction, and intact planning systematically fail to complete extendedtasks. Despite extensive discussion across psychology, neuroscience, and popular discourse, existingexplanations remain fragmented, often invoking motivation, personality traits, or isolated neurochemical mechanisms. In this work, we argue that such explanations are insufficient. We proposethat execution failure is not a deficit of intelligence, willpower, or desire, but a necessary consequence of finite causal capacity for state maintenance. Building on the Causal Life framework, wetreat execution as a causal process: the sustained maintenance of an internal task state under cumulative load and finite resources. We present a comprehensive literature review spanning executivefunction, cognitive load, boredom, large-scale brain dynamics, and neuroendocrine modulation. Wethen formalize execution as a load–capacity system, derive a Lyapunov-based causal admissibilitycondition for persistence, and show why many common interventions are structurally ineffective.Finally, we extend the framework to artificial agents, providing an operational specification thatenables AI systems to reason about execution failure without anthropomorphic assumptions. Theresulting theory reframes high capability, low execution as a predictable, falsifiable, system-levelphenomenon governed by causal architecture rather than personal deficiency.