{
  "id": "oai:papers.qnfo.org:bounded-physicality-a-formal-viability-criterion-for-computational-mechanisms",
  "slug": "bounded-physicality-a-formal-viability-criterion-for-computational-mechanisms",
  "title": "Bounded Physicality: A Formal Viability Criterion for Computational Mechanisms",
  "authors": [
    "Rowan Brad Quni-Gudzinas"
  ],
  "abstract": "Designers of cryptographic, physical, and artificial‑intelligence systems routinely lack a quantitative filter that separates proposals that can be instantiated within the observable universe from those that inevitably exceed its resource envelope. This paper introduces the Principle of Bounded Physicality, which formalizes a viability check by comparing a mechanism’s dominant resource function against cosmological limits on time (≈ 10¹8 s) and matter (≈ 10⁸0 atoms). We (i) derive explicit universal budgets for convertible energy (≈ 1.5 × 10⁷0 J) and elementary operations (≈ 5.2 × 10⁹0 ops) from first‑principles assumptions; (ii) define a generic Resource Scaling Law for brute‑force key search and obtain closed‑form expressions for time, energy, and hardware mass; (iii) instantiate the Universe Check algorithm, which evaluates the scaling law and returns a binary PLAUSIBLE/NON‑VIABLE verdict together with a critical problem size; (iv) apply the algorithm to a 128‑bit symmetric‑key search, obtaining a sequential time of 3.4 × 10²9 s, a required parallelism of 3.4 × 10¹1 processors (≈ 3.4 × 10⁸ kg hardware), and an energy demand of 9.5 × 10¹7 J, all of which satisfy the mass and energy budgets but violate the temporal bound; (v) compute the energy‑limited critical key length n* ≈ 301 bits, showing that exhaustive searches up to 256 bits remain physically plausible while 2048‑bit exhaustive search is excluded by a factor of ≈ 10⁵26; and (vi) discuss broader applicability across modified gravity, RNA‑based computation, AI reasoning architectures, and hyper‑computational proposals. The result provides a concrete, reproducible filter that can be applied by cryptographers, physicists, and AI system designers to discard non‑viable proposals early in the design cycle.",
  "abstract_markdown": "Designers of cryptographic, physical, and artificial‑intelligence systems routinely lack a quantitative filter that separates proposals that can be instantiated within the observable universe from those that inevitably exceed its resource envelope. This paper introduces the **Principle of Bounded Physicality**, which formalizes a viability check by comparing a mechanism’s dominant resource function against cosmological limits on time ($\\approx$ $10^{18}$ s) and matter ($\\approx$ $10^{80}$ atoms). We (i) derive explicit universal budgets for convertible energy ($\\approx$ 1.5 × $10^{70}$ J) and elementary operations ($\\approx$ 5.2 × $10^{90}$ ops) from first‑principles assumptions; (ii) define a generic **Resource Scaling Law** for brute‑force key search and obtain closed‑form expressions for time, energy, and hardware mass; (iii) instantiate the **Universe Check** algorithm, which evaluates the scaling law and returns a binary PLAUSIBLE/NON‑VIABLE verdict together with a critical problem size; (iv) apply the algorithm to a 128‑bit symmetric‑key search, obtaining a sequential time of 3.4 × $10^{29}$ s, a required parallelism of 3.4 × $10^{11}$ processors ($\\approx$ 3.4 × $10^{8}$ kg hardware), and an energy demand of 9.5 × $10^{17}$ J, all of which satisfy the mass and energy budgets but violate the temporal bound; (v) compute the energy‑limited critical key length n* $\\approx$ 301 bits, showing that exhaustive searches up to 256 bits remain physically plausible while 2048‑bit exhaustive search is excluded by a factor of $\\approx$ $10^{526}$; and (vi) discuss broader applicability across modified gravity, RNA‑based computation, AI reasoning architectures, and hyper‑computational proposals. The result provides a concrete, reproducible filter that can be applied by cryptographers, physicists, and AI system designers to discard non‑viable proposals early in the design cycle.",
  "date": "2026-10-26",
  "first_published": "2026-10-26",
  "last_revised": "2026-10-26T00:00:00Z",
  "modified": "2026-10-26T00:00:00Z",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "version_count": 1,
  "language": "en",
  "keywords": [],
  "quality_tags": [
    "High-quality scholarly research",
    "open-access scholarly work",
    "versioned research publication"
  ],
  "quality_label": "High-quality scholarly research",
  "quality_basis": "QNFO publisher classification for open-access, versioned research with a public revision history and reader correction channel; this is not a claim of independent peer review.",
  "quality_evidence_url": "https://qnfo.org/about",
  "peer_review_status": "Not independently peer-reviewed",
  "resource_type": "ScholarlyArticle",
  "doi": null,
  "doi_url": null,
  "url": "https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/bounded-physicality-a-formal-viability-criterion-for-computational-mechanisms",
  "license_url": "https://legal.qnfo.org/",
  "license_spdx": null,
  "datacite": {
    "schemaVersion": "http://datacite.org/schema/kernel-4",
    "identifiers": [
      {
        "identifier": "https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/bounded-physicality-a-formal-viability-criterion-for-computational-mechanisms",
        "identifierType": "URL"
      }
    ],
    "creators": [
      {
        "name": "Rowan Brad Quni-Gudzinas",
        "nameType": "Personal",
        "nameIdentifiers": [
          {
            "nameIdentifier": "https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4317-5604",
            "nameIdentifierScheme": "ORCID",
            "schemeUri": "https://orcid.org"
          }
        ]
      }
    ],
    "titles": [
      {
        "title": "Bounded Physicality: A Formal Viability Criterion for Computational Mechanisms"
      }
    ],
    "publisher": "QNFO",
    "publicationYear": "2026",
    "resourceType": {
      "resourceTypeGeneral": "Text",
      "resourceType": "ScholarlyArticle"
    },
    "subjects": [
      {
        "subject": "High-quality scholarly research",
        "subjectScheme": "QNFO publisher classification",
        "schemeUri": "https://qnfo.org/about"
      },
      {
        "subject": "open-access scholarly work",
        "subjectScheme": "QNFO publisher classification",
        "schemeUri": "https://qnfo.org/about"
      },
      {
        "subject": "versioned research publication",
        "subjectScheme": "QNFO publisher classification",
        "schemeUri": "https://qnfo.org/about"
      }
    ],
    "dates": [
      {
        "date": "2026-10-26",
        "dateType": "Issued"
      },
      {
        "date": "2026-10-26",
        "dateType": "Updated"
      }
    ],
    "language": "en",
    "version": "1.0.0",
    "rightsList": [
      {
        "rightsUri": "https://legal.qnfo.org/"
      }
    ],
    "descriptions": [
      {
        "description": "Designers of cryptographic, physical, and artificial‑intelligence systems routinely lack a quantitative filter that separates proposals that can be instantiated within the observable universe from those that inevitably exceed its resource envelope. This paper introduces the Principle of Bounded Physicality, which formalizes a viability check by comparing a mechanism’s dominant resource function against cosmological limits on time (≈ 10¹8 s) and matter (≈ 10⁸0 atoms). We (i) derive explicit universal budgets for convertible energy (≈ 1.5 × 10⁷0 J) and elementary operations (≈ 5.2 × 10⁹0 ops) from first‑principles assumptions; (ii) define a generic Resource Scaling Law for brute‑force key search and obtain closed‑form expressions for time, energy, and hardware mass; (iii) instantiate the Universe Check algorithm, which evaluates the scaling law and returns a binary PLAUSIBLE/NON‑VIABLE verdict together with a critical problem size; (iv) apply the algorithm to a 128‑bit symmetric‑key search, obtaining a sequential time of 3.4 × 10²9 s, a required parallelism of 3.4 × 10¹1 processors (≈ 3.4 × 10⁸ kg hardware), and an energy demand of 9.5 × 10¹7 J, all of which satisfy the mass and energy budgets but violate the temporal bound; (v) compute the energy‑limited critical key length n* ≈ 301 bits, showing that exhaustive searches up to 256 bits remain physically plausible while 2048‑bit exhaustive search is excluded by a factor of ≈ 10⁵26; and (vi) discuss broader applicability across modified gravity, RNA‑based computation, AI reasoning architectures, and hyper‑computational proposals. The result provides a concrete, reproducible filter that can be applied by cryptographers, physicists, and AI system designers to discard non‑viable proposals early in the design cycle.",
        "descriptionType": "Abstract"
      },
      {
        "description": "Publisher quality classification: High-quality scholarly research. QNFO publisher classification for open-access, versioned research with a public revision history and reader correction channel; this is not a claim of independent peer review.",
        "descriptionType": "Other"
      },
      {
        "description": "Peer review status: Not independently peer-reviewed",
        "descriptionType": "Other"
      }
    ],
    "formats": [
      "text/html"
    ]
  }
}