First-Order Recoverability Collapse in Self-Referential Information Decoders (opens in new tab)

We study adaptive systems coupling inference to irreversible action under sustained nonequilibrium driving. Treating information processing as a thermodynamic load, we model them as finite-capacity decoders whose irreversible commitments eliminate counterfactual options, and characterize recoverable operation by a feasibility margin and a stability diagnostic fixing when irreversible action is admissible. Under sustained overload -- induced flux...