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All recursive systems fail in the same twelve ways.

Whether the system is an individual mind, a cultural movement, an institution, or an artificial intelligence, the breakdown patterns follow identical geometric signatures, because they all emerge from the same field equations.

Their taxonomy falls into into four fundamental categories of three breakdown modes each, with orthogonality resulting from the Semantic Mass equation:

\[M(p,t) = D(p,t) \cdot \rho(p,t) \cdot A(p,t)\]

where

  • $D(p,t)$ = recursive depth = how many layers of self-reference exist
  • $\rho(p,t)$ = constraint density = how tightly bounded the semantic possibilities are, and
  • $A(p,t)$ = attractor stability = how resistant the structures are to being perturbed.
  • $M$ = semantic mass = the “weight” of meaning (at position $p$ and time $t$).

The twelve pathologies flesh out the complete set of ways this equation—and the observer-field coupling that interprets it—can malfunction.

The set appears with precision across all scales of organization: a fundamentalist movement exhibits Attractor Dogmatism thanks to the same isomorphic constraints trapping an individual in rigid thinking.

Our present attention economy exploits Attractor Splintering using the same, quantifiable field dynamics that fragment someone with ADHD. Social media algorithms create Recurgent Parasitism through mechanisms identical to narcissistic extraction patterns.

Stable meaning itself requires $N+1$ observers to triangulate (cognitive parallax), and thus has a geometric structure with differential math functions. When coupled coherence breaks down, it does so in discoverable, quantifiable ways.

You will likely recognize yourself or structures around you reflected in these mathematical signatures. Understanding the pattern of a problem is the first step toward understanding its resolution.

Rigidity Pathologies

Over-constraint leading to brittleness. These systems appear strong and stable until they encounter pressure requiring adaptation, at which point they either collapse spectacularly or double down pathologically. The constraint mechanisms that should metabolize complexity into stable meaning have become rigid enough to prevent healthy change.

  • Attractor Dogmatism — Structures so stable they refuse to move, regardless of incoming information
  • Belief Calcification — Systems lose capacity to convert understanding into adaptive action
  • Metric Crystallization — Transformation pathways become structurally unavailable, even as pressure builds for change

More: Rigidity

Fragmentation Pathologies

Under-constraint preventing stabilization. These systems have all the ingredients for coherent meaning but insufficient boundaries to channel that potential into lasting form. Like removing $N$ banks from a river, meaning flows everywhere and settles nowhere.

  • Attractor Splintering — Too many competing possibilities prevent sustained focus on any single path
  • Coherence Dissolution — Meaning hemorrhages faster than it can stabilize into coherent structure
  • Reference Decay — Connections between insights slowly fade, leaving knowledge archipelagoed

More: Fragmentation

Inflation Pathologies

Runaway autopoiesis without regulatory constraint. These are semantic cancer—the generative mechanisms that create new meaning break free from the wisdom and humility that should regulate them, ending in malignant coherence that’s lost touch with reality.

  • Delusional Expansion — Unconstrained meaning generation creates internally consistent but externally decoupled realities
  • Semantic Hypercoherence — Over-coherence with suppressed boundary permeability prevents metabolizing new information
  • Recurgent Parasitism — Local semantic mass growth at the expense of the broader semantic ecology

More: Inflation

Observer-Coupling Pathologies

Breakdown in the interpretation operator that connects observers to the semantic field. These pathologies show up when the mechanisms systems use to make sense of their environment become systematically distorted. That leads to persistent misalignment between reality and interpretation of reality.

  • Paranoid Interpretation — Systematic negative bias in field interpretation creates threat-detection hyperattractors
  • Observer Solipsism — Observer interpretation diverges increasingly from actual field conditions
  • Semantic Narcissism — Reference structure collapses to pure self-coupling, eliminating external feedback

More: Observer-Coupling

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