eess.SYOct 8, 2026

Causal-fate dynamics of unrealized influence

Authors: Yiwei Liu, Luwei Yang, Shunbo Lei

Organizations: School of Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518172, China. · Shenzhen Research Institute of Big Data (SRIBD), Shenzhen, 518172, China.

Abstract

Many dynamical systems generate influences whose consequences are not fully exhausted in the realized trajectory at the moment they arise. Such consequences are often treated as absent, delayed or statically stored, leaving unclear how unrealized influence retains future relevance as the system evolves. Here we formulate causal-fate dynamics, in which generated influence may be realized, remain latent, or be transformed by subsequent dynamics, and give an exact finite-transport representation when the relevant maps are specified. A connectome-constrained Caenorhabditis elegans model first motivates the biological hypothesis that unresolved inter-neuronal influence may persist and contribute to later propagation; it does not establish such a mechanism in living animals. We next examine operational Internet routing, where a dynamically updated cross-observer history retains predictive information beyond the current local route state. We then use the representation to construct a Transformer architecture that explicitly transports and selectively realizes latent contextual influence while retaining language-modeling function. The three studies distinguish a model-motivated scientific hypothesis, an observational phenomenon compatible with future-relevant history and an executable construction for carrying unrealized influence through subsequent computation.

Explore similar work

CardsList
  1. BeliefGraph-JEPA: Structured Latent World Models for Action-Conditioned Time Series

    Oct 4, 2026Yue Li, Kangqi Ni, Zhen Tan +1Multivariate Time Series ForecastingLatent Dynamics Modeling

  2. Where Does Neural Advantage Arise in Continuous-Time Dynamic Graph Prediction?

    Aug 7, 2026Minwoo Yu, Young-guk HaTemporal GNNsTemporal Link Prediction

  3. Hidden APIs in Language Models: Discovering Reusable Causal Interfaces from Forked Futures

    Jul 30, 2026SiYuan Ma, Yiqin Luo, Zhangji +8LLM InterpretabilityCausal Abstraction