AIM Framework glossary
Fold Geometry (AIM usage)
Canonical definition
Fold Geometry names the bifurcation topology in which two fixed points of the fast valuation dynamical system (Appendix A), one stable and one unstable, approach each other as the internal loop gain G ≡ κS·β·γ·σ'(V) rises, collide at G = Gcrit, and annihilate, after which the system has no nearby equilibrium and jumps discontinuously to whichever distant attractor survives the collision: the inflated state where the low-V fixed point was the one annihilated, and the A-I functional baseline V ≈ wA·A + wI·I where the inflated fixed point was. Fold Geometry is the architecturally generic case for high-PM systems under M1 through M5b and is the mathematical structure underlying Saddle-Node Default. Canonical reference: Appendix A, §A.5.3.
Explanation
Imagine two hills on a landscape that gradually slide toward each other until they merge and flatten out. Before the merge, a ball sitting on the stable hill can wobble a bit and return to the top. Once the hills collide and disappear, the ball has nowhere local to rest and rolls all the way down to the valley far below. Fold Geometry is the mathematical name for this kind of collapse. In AIM it describes what happens to an inflated mimetic valuation (bubble price, scapegoating peak, institutional consensus) when the concealment structure holding it up gives way. There is no warning wobble and no gentle return to fair value. The system simply falls off the edge and lands at the level that would have existed if Mimetic Premium had never inflated it. The same geometry runs the other way at the other edge. Approached from below, it is the low hill that merges and vanishes, and the ball rolls up into the inflated state — which is how the spiral catches rather than how it ends.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct.