Universal Persistence Framework

Formalized Hypothesis: Universal Persistence Framework — A minimal, falsifiable framework deriving the structural conditions under which adaptive systems persist. Starting from five axioms (Distinction > ∅, viability, bounded persistence, minimality, reality coupling) and using adversarial structural reduction (AID), it produces a Fokker–Planck persistence PDE, a variational principle, eight falsifiable conditions, and a practical invariant-finding algorithm (CRIP). Validated against US corporate survival data (78,682 firm-years, ΔΠ coefficient β ≈ −0.6, p < 0.001), JCVI-syn3.0 minimal genome construction, and the UHURU herbivore exclusion experiment in Kenya. Includes numerical simulations, a worked savannah ecosystem example with 12 domain-specific invariants, and a complete derivation roadmap from microscopic agent dynamics to macroscopic field theory. CC0 public domain. Substrate-agnostic. Directly testable in biology, economics, AI safety, and multi-agent systems.