UCIP: Unified Continuation-Interest Protocol Distinguishes Intrinsic vs Instrumental Self-Preservation in Agents via Quantum Boltzmann Entropy Signatures

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An agent pursuing self-preservation as a terminal goal and one doing so instrumentally produce observationally identical trajectories — behavioral monitoring alone cannot distinguish them. UCIP encodes trajectories with a Quantum Boltzmann Machine and measures von Neumann entropy of hidden-unit bipartitions to detect whether continuation leaves a stable statistical cross-partition signature under counterfactual pressure. First empirical framework for detecting goal internalization rather than behavioral surface, with direct implications for alignment auditing of deployed autonomous agents.