Abstract

This paper proposes the Principle of Adaptive Efficiency (PAE), a unifying framework describing the behavior of all systems—physical, biological, and cognitive—as manifestations of a single tendency: persistence within scarcity through self-optimization. Entities reorganize to maximize efficiency in transforming energy and information to maintain coherence. The PAE bridges thermodynamics, evolution, and systems physics; complexity emerges as a statistical consequence of local optimization. A formal model links persistence potential to adaptive efficiency. Cosmological, biological, cognitive, and sociotechnical implications are discussed, along with a philosophical extension wherein, if a God exists, PAE could be the mechanism of creation’s approach to perfection and love the phenomenological expression of adaptive efficiency.