The tuning band for α

The fine-structure constant must lie within a band for record-formation to be possible.

If α were significantly larger, bonds would be too stable to break and reform at habitable temperatures. The dynamic assembly and revision of molecular records would not occur. The chemistry of your body would not be possible.

If α were significantly smaller, bonds would be too weak to persist against thermal noise. No durable structures. No you.

The observed value of α lies in the band where records are durable enough to persist but flexible enough to be revised.

Status: qualitative constraint, not quantitative derivation. The bounds are order-of-magnitude indications. Exact viability bands are empirical and model-dependent.

Kill switch KS-RM.3. Via cosmological simulation or theoretical analysis, demonstrate that a universe with significantly different coupling constants (α and G varied by large factors) can still support the full inheritance chain through alternative mechanisms. If such a universe exists and the couplings are not constrained by the functional requirements of the loop, the tuning claim is false. The values remain arbitrary. LIVE — EMPIRICAL.

Whether α’s observed value is uniquely required is open.

What is not open: the role α plays. It is the coupling strength of the electron — the splinter ε — to the connection (AP15).

It is the strength at which one minimum element breaks one minimum symmetry.