The Replicator-Optimization Mechanism: A Scale-Relative Formalism for Persistence-Conditioned Dynamics

Abstract

This paper proposes the Replicator-Optimization Mechanism (ROM), a unified computational framework for understanding self-replicating, optimization-executing systems across physical and abstract substrates. The framework identifies formal invariants shared by biological replicators, computational optimization algorithms, and abstract mathematical structures, arguing that replication and optimization are computationally equivalent processes operating at different levels of description.