Nathan M. Thornhill is a complexity science researcher working in information theory and pattern persistence. The four papers collected here develop a single instrument - a scalar metric for pattern persistence and the cost of dimensional change - validated across cellular automata, transformer attention, financial markets, space weather, and the human brain in sleep and wake.He came to this field from outside the traditional academy. Years in healthcare administration - nursing homes first, then ICU admissions - put him across from coordinated systems succeeding, failing, and rearranging themselves on a nightly basis. Computers and technology have been a lifelong passion; AI, when it arrived, read not as the latest instrument but as the most natural subject the research could be pointed at. The four papers come out of the three threads running together.He holds provisional patents on measurement systems derived from this work, with applications in artificial intelligence, artificial general intelligence, and AI/AGI safety. His research is archived through the Institute for Complexity Science and Advanced Computing.He lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he also runs a technology consultancy. He enjoys aviation and flight, camping, plays guitar, and spends too much time trying to maintain a fairly acceptable lawn and landscaping, but family always comes first. The lab may just be a spare room, but the hours - they are late, and the work must continue.