Why "Extinction" Is a Human Label, Not a Biological Event

CMEM Framework Collection Link This document reframes so-called “mass extinction” events as interface-level system failures rather than biological annihilation. Using the Permian–Triassic and Cretaceous–Paleogene transitions as diagnostic cases, it applies the CMEM / IFST framework to show that collapse emerges when multiple non-saturating and non-pausable interfaces are forced to operate beyond their temporal tolerance window (Δt). “Extinction” is treated here as a human taxonomic label that marks the visible outcome of interface cascade collapse, not its cause. The paper provides a structured, non-teleological diagnostic model for large-scale biological transitions under compressed temporal regimes. A system-diagnostic reinterpretation of mass extinction events as interface cascade failures under compressed temporal regimes.