BCT — Supplementary Note S1: τ Is Not an Anthropic Parameter

Supplementary Note S1 (Phase 2): Why τ* Is Not an Anthropic Parameter This note addresses a central concern in Phase 2 of Bit-Collapse Theory (BCT): whether the persistence threshold τ* should be interpreted as an “anthropic” parameter. The answer proposed here is no. τ* is framed as an operational, architecture-dependent threshold arising from physical constraints on record retention and accessibility, rather than from human-centric cognition or semantics. Core points: τ* is defined operationally as the minimal timescale required for a record channel to stabilize at least Ic ≥ 1 effective bit with error ≤ ε, within the agent’s integration window. The role of τ* follows from identity self-consistency across updates: without sufficient persistence, the overlap of accessible records across times fails, making the “same experience/same agent” equivalence unstable. τ* is distinct from standard decoherence timescales (e.g., τ_dec) and is tied instead to retention/loss properties of the record substrate. The note includes explicit predictions and falsifiers, intended to complement the Phase 2 falsifiability program. This Supplementary Note is intended to be integrated into the next update of the main Phase 2 package. Related main record (Concept DOI): https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18496128 Keywords: Bit-Collapse Theory, τ*, persistence threshold, records, accessibility, non-anthropic parameter, falsifiability, quantum foundations.