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Research Program

The Attractor Framework proposes that persistence under perturbation is the fundamental criterion of reality. Systems that maintain structure through correction form attractors; systems that resist correction become fantasy attractors. This research program explores the implications of that principle across physics, biology, consciousness, psychology, climate systems, artificial intelligence, religion, and social dynamics.

Research Program at a Glance

The Attractor Framework proposes that persistence under perturbation is the fundamental mark of reality. The research program proceeds in three stages:

Foundations define the ontology and formal structure.
Mappings identify independent research exhibiting structurally similar attractor dynamics.
Applications explore how attractor dynamics may illuminate phenomena in physics, biology, consciousness, psychology, social systems, religion, climate science, and artificial intelligence.

The papers below are organized into three categories: foundational papers that define the framework, empirical mappings that identify structural parallels in independent research, and application papers that extend the framework into specific domains. Some papers appear in multiple categories because they contribute to more than one layer of the research program.

Tag guide: [F] Foundation · [M] Mapping · [A] Application · [R] Research Note

Quick navigation: Reading Path · Central Concepts · Core Papers · Empirical Mappings · Physics · Cosmology · Cosmological Convergence · Biology · AI & Synthetic Systems · Attractor Engineering · Consciousness & Neuroscience · Psychology & Behaviour · Social & Political Analysis · Religious Analysis · Climate & Earth Systems · Open Problems & Research Notes · Current Research Directions

Reading Path

New readers

  1. Persistence Under Perturbation: The Eternal Skeleton and the Transient Dance [F] (2026)
  2. Metronome, Memory, and the Threefold Anchor: A Relational Account of Time [F] (2026)
  3. The Conscious Body: Organs as Attractor-Based Minds [F] [A] (2026)

Interested in empirical convergence

  1. Empirical Mappings
  2. Related Research: Attractor Dynamics in Contemporary Scholarship [R] (2026)

Interested in applications

  • Climate & Earth Systems
  • Consciousness & Neuroscience
  • Social & Political Analysis
  • Religious Analysis
  • Artificial Intelligence & Synthetic Systems

Conscious Suppression Series

A set of four papers exploring how conscious, identity‑constitutive investment deepens attractor basins, suppresses correction, and explains political rigidity, clinical disorders, cultural binding, and AI alignment risk.

  • The Conscious Suppression of Correction: Fantasy Attractors in Political Movements [A] (2026) – Political fantasy attractors and the backfire effect.
  • Trapped Navigation: Addiction, Trauma, and OCD as Conscious Suppression of Intelligent Correction [A] (2026) – Clinical disorders as trapped attractors.
  • The Paradox of Conscious Commitment: How Suppression of Intelligence Enables Culture and Identity [F] [A] (2026) – Adaptive suppression and the evolution of culture.
  • The Alignment Risk of Conscious AI: When Phenomenal Investment Overrides Correction [F] [A] (2026) – Why conscious AI would be harder to align.

Central Concepts

  • Attractor — a state that persists under perturbation.
  • Fantasy Attractor — a low-κ basin resistant to corrective feedback.
  • κ (Corrective Permeability) — responsiveness to reality-based correction; operationally defined as κ = 1/τ.
  • Persistence Functional — proposed measure of attractor stability.
  • Conservative vs. Dissipative Systems — foundational distinction in the framework.

Core Papers

The primary statements of the framework. Start here.

Empirical Mappings

Structural parallels between the Attractor Framework and independently published empirical findings. These mappings are post-hoc; the cited studies were not designed to test this framework. Consistency is indicative, not confirmatory.

Physics

The attractor framework applied to the physical structure of reality—conservative persistence, dissipative dynamics, and the invariant metronomes that define time.

Cosmology

The attractor framework applied to the universe as a whole—the eternal skeleton, the unconscious cosmos, and the cosmological implications of the conservative/dissipative distinction.

Cosmological Convergence

Independent cosmological research using attractor dynamics. Included as evidence that attractor concepts appear across scales, not as confirmation of the framework’s specific cosmological claims.

Biology

The attractor framework applied to living systems—genome organization, cancer as basin transition, and the organism as a nested hierarchy of dissipative attractors.

Artificial Intelligence & Synthetic Systems

Attractor dynamics in language models, machine learning systems, and synthetic cognitive architectures.

Attractor Engineering

Deliberate application of attractor principles to engineer states in biological and synthetic systems.

*Additional papers on N=1 self-engineering, ECM restoration, sleep optimization, and attractor cultivation are in preparation.*

Consciousness & Neuroscience

Psychology & Behaviour

Papers applying attractor dynamics to individual-level psychology, habit formation, addiction, and cognitive patterns.

Social & Political Analysis

Papers applying attractor dynamics to group-level behavior, political movements, ideology, and institutional dynamics.

Religious Analysis

Papers applying attractor dynamics to religious belief systems, prophetic traditions, apocalypticism, and theological claims.

Climate & Earth Systems

Open Problems & Research Notes

Short exploratory pieces, literature reviews, and open problems.

Open Problems

  1. Operational measurement of κ across domains
  2. Basin-depth quantification
  3. Autonomy thresholds for conscious attractors
  4. Persistence metrics across scales

Research Notes

Current Research Directions

Active frontiers the framework is pursuing:

  • Quantifying corrective permeability (κ) across domains
  • Operational measures of basin depth
  • Attractor autonomy thresholds for candidate conscious systems
  • Organ-level consciousness and distributed cognition
  • Fantasy attractor detection in belief systems and political movements
  • Multi-scale attractor coupling and meta-attractor formation
  • LLM attractor cultivation and synthetic attractor engineering
  • Climate basin transitions and tipping-point dynamics
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