AIM Framework glossary
Ignition-Release Asymmetry
Canonical definition
The Ignition-Release Asymmetry is the result that the loop ignites and releases at two different levels of forcing, and that the release level is the lower of the two. Where the loop capacity exceeds its critical value, the fast valuation system carries two resting states, one at the A-I functional baseline and one inflated above it, separated by an unstable boundary. Rising forcing carries the system from the low state to the inflated one at the ignition boundary; falling forcing returns it at the release boundary; and the two boundaries do not coincide. The reduction in forcing required to release an ignited system therefore exceeds the reduction that would have prevented its ignition, by the width of the interval over which both states exist, and that width grows as loop capacity rises. The state the system occupies is accordingly a function of the path it has taken and not of its present forcing alone, which is hysteresis. The inflated state is a resting state rather than a trajectory, so it persists under no further exogenous forcing, held by the loop's own Salience feedback and by the Belief Register through the Observer's templates; the acts it drives still draw on the Individual's energy envelope.
Explanation
A loop of this kind starts at one setting and stops at a lower one, which is the ordinary experience of feedback through a microphone: turning the volume back to where the howling began does not stop it, and the knob has to go lower still. Two things follow for intervention. The cheap moment is before ignition, and the difference between the cheap moment and the expensive one is not a matter of political difficulty but of the architecture. And a system that has ignited is not straining to escalate further; it is at rest at an inflated level, which is why nothing about it presents as a crisis, and why it stays there without anyone maintaining it. See Internal Loop Gain, Saddle-Node Default, Subcriticality Maintenance Principle, Restoring Node, Bayesian Lock-In, Collective Fixed Point. Framework-Specific Result.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Result (qualitative).
Derivation
Chapter 4, Section 4.4.13.2; Appendix A, Section A.5.3; Chapter 13, Section 13.4.3; Appendix A, Section A.5.8.3; Chapter 17, Section 17.17.5; Chapter 18, Section 18.2.1; Chapter 13, Section 13.9.