Valence as Real Structure

The post-drought bounce. The framework should have predicted this, but the data arrived before the prediction did. In protocell agent experiments (V31, 10 seeds), the correlation between post-drought $\Phi$ recovery and mean lifetime $\Phi$ is $r = 0.997$ ($p < 0.0001$). Systems that recover most effectively from near-dissolution — that move away from $\partial\viable$ most decisively — are the ones with highest integration. What if this is not a coincidence but a structural necessity? The same cause-effect coupling that constitutes high $\Phi$ is what enables coherent recovery — the capacity to reorganize under threat rather than fragment. Positive valence (movement into the viable interior) tracks integration because integration is the capacity for coordinated response. The systems that bounce back are not merely lucky survivors. They are the ones whose internal structure supports what suffering, survived, leaves behind.