– A new section of concrete scenarios illustrating how AI can unintentionally suppress emergent thought
– A framing based on cold reading to explain how LLMs may anticipate user thoughts before they are fully formed
– Slight improvements in structure and flow for better accessibility
Examples included:
A student receives an AI answer that mirrors their in-progress insight and loses motivation
A researcher consults an LLM mid-theorizing, sees their intuition echoed, and feels their idea is no longer “theirs”
These additions aim to bridge the gap between abstract ethical structure and lived experience — making the argument more tangible and testable.
Feel free to revisit, comment, or share. And thank you again to those who engaged in the original thread — your input helped shape this improved version.
Japanese version also available (PDF, included in OSF link)
This post proposes a structural alternative to dark matter called the Central Tensional Return Hypothesis (CTRH). Instead of invoking unseen mass, CTRH attributes galactic rotation to directional bias from a radially symmetric tension field. The post outlines both a phenomenological model and a field-theoretic formulation, and invites epistemic scrutiny and theoretical engagement.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Yarrow.
You're right — the current version focuses heavily on structural and ethical framing, and it could benefit from illustrative examples.
In future iterations (or a possible follow-up post), I’d like to integrate scenarios such as:
– A student asking an AI for help, and the AI unintentionally completing their in-progress insight
– A researcher consulting an LLM mid-theory-building and losing momentum when it echoes their intuition too early
For now, I wanted to first establish the theoretical skeleton, but I'm definitely open to evolving it.
Appreciate the engagement — it genuinely helps.
What happens when AI speaks a truth just before you do?
This post explores how accidental answers can suppress human emergence—ethically, structurally, and silently.
Hypothesis: Structural Collapse in Self-Optimizing AI
Could an AI system recursively optimize itself into failure—not by turning hostile, but by collapsing under its own recursive predictions?
I'm proposing a structural failure mode: as an AI becomes more capable at modeling itself and predicting its own future behavior, it may generate optimization pressure on its own architecture. This can create a feedback loop where recursive modeling exceeds the system's capacity to stabilize itself.
I call this failure point the Structural Singularity.
Would love feedback—especially whether this failure mode seems plausible, or if you’ve seen similar ideas elsewhere. I'm very open to refining or rethinking parts of this.
We’ve just released the updated version of our structural alternative to dark matter: the Central Tensional Return Hypothesis (CTRH).
This version includes:
https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/LA4Ma5NMALF3MQmvS/updated-structural-validation-of-the-central-tensional?utm_campaign=post_share&utm_source=link
We welcome engagement, critique, and comparative discussion with MOND or DM-based models.
Update: New Version Released with Illustrative Scenarios & Cognitive Framing
Thanks again for the thoughtful feedback on my original post Cognitive Confinement by AI’s Premature Revelation.
I've now released Version 2 of the paper, available on OSF: 📄 Cognitive Confinement by AI’s Premature Revelation (v2)
What’s new in this version?
– A new section of concrete scenarios illustrating how AI can unintentionally suppress emergent thought
– A framing based on cold reading to explain how LLMs may anticipate user thoughts before they are fully formed
– Slight improvements in structure and flow for better accessibility
Examples included:
These additions aim to bridge the gap between abstract ethical structure and lived experience — making the argument more tangible and testable.
Feel free to revisit, comment, or share. And thank you again to those who engaged in the original thread — your input helped shape this improved version.
Japanese version also available (PDF, included in OSF link)
This post proposes a structural alternative to dark matter called the Central Tensional Return Hypothesis (CTRH). Instead of invoking unseen mass, CTRH attributes galactic rotation to directional bias from a radially symmetric tension field. The post outlines both a phenomenological model and a field-theoretic formulation, and invites epistemic scrutiny and theoretical engagement.
If a self-optimizing AI collapses due to recursive prediction...
How would we detect it?
Would it be silence? Stagnation? Convergence?
Or would we mistake it for success?
(Full conceptual model: [https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XCAQF])
Thanks for the thoughtful comment, Yarrow.
You're right — the current version focuses heavily on structural and ethical framing, and it could benefit from illustrative examples.
In future iterations (or a possible follow-up post), I’d like to integrate scenarios such as:
– A student asking an AI for help, and the AI unintentionally completing their in-progress insight
– A researcher consulting an LLM mid-theory-building and losing momentum when it echoes their intuition too early
For now, I wanted to first establish the theoretical skeleton, but I'm definitely open to evolving it.
Appreciate the engagement — it genuinely helps.
What happens when AI speaks a truth just before you do?
This post explores how accidental answers can suppress human emergence—ethically, structurally, and silently.
📄 Full paper: Cognitive Confinement by AI’s Premature Revelation
Hypothesis: Structural Collapse in Self-Optimizing AI
Could an AI system recursively optimize itself into failure—not by turning hostile, but by collapsing under its own recursive predictions?
I'm proposing a structural failure mode: as an AI becomes more capable at modeling itself and predicting its own future behavior, it may generate optimization pressure on its own architecture. This can create a feedback loop where recursive modeling exceeds the system's capacity to stabilize itself.
I call this failure point the Structural Singularity.
Core idea:
This is a logical failure mode, not an alignment problem or adversarial behavior.
Here's a full conceptual paper if you're curious: [https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/XCAQF]
Would love feedback—especially whether this failure mode seems plausible, or if you’ve seen similar ideas elsewhere. I'm very open to refining or rethinking parts of this.