The post-electromagnetic era: A vision for wireless communication beyond 6G

Electromagnetic (EM) communication is approaching fundamental physical and thermodynamic limits, where further performance gains through spectrum expansion and waveform optimization alone are increasingly unsustainable. The purpose of this paper is to explore how wireless communication may evolve beyond the EM paradigm by reframing information transfer as controlled manipulation of physical, biological, and cognitive states rather than radiative signal propagation. The main contribution of this work is a state-centric conceptual framework for post-6G communication. The paper identifies and categorizes ten foundational paradigms, including quantum-state transfer, atomic and lattice-level signaling, biological communication, cognitive telepresence, and spacetime-based coordination, defining potential non-EM and hybrid communication mechanisms. In addition, a research roadmap is outlined to place these paradigms within plausible future network generations beyond 6G. The key findings of this study are conceptual. The analysis shows that diverse communication mechanisms across physical, biological, and cognitive domains can be unified using common principles such as state transduction, coherence preservation, entropy management, and energy-aware conversion. These findings indicate that future communication systems may evolve from spectrum-bound infrastructures into adaptive and self-organizing networks that integrate information transfer with sensing, computation, and actuation. This work establishes a conceptual reference framework for future theoretical and interdisciplinary research on communication beyond conventional EM-based systems.