Multiscale Entropic Ethics: A Non-Scalar, Auditable Grammar for Decision-Making Under Irreversibility

This paper introduces Multiscale Entropic Ethics (MEE), a procedural framework for decision-making in nonstationary, tightly coupled systems. Thermodynamic and informational entropy are employed as analytical tools—irreversibility, uncertainty, and organization—without equating morality with “entropy reduction.” Decision processes are structured into four layers: (A) prior feasibility based on rights and dated planetary guardrails; (B) plural, non-commensurable evaluation across physical, informational, distributive, ecological, and non-anthropocentric dimensions; (C) robustness and anti-manipulation safeguards; and (D) systematic reduction of ethical blindness (variables, horizons, multispecies perspectives). The framework formalizes conflict resolution among protected constraints, provides adoption artifacts (roles, templates, indicators), and specifies a validation program with pilots, adversarial audits, and revision triggers. A retrospective application to the Dakota Access Pipeline illustrates predictive advantages over conventional cost-benefit and environmental assessment approaches. The paper concludes with a roadmap for formalizing MEE’s non-scalar commitments without collapsing into single-number aggregation.