AIM Framework glossary
Parasitic Equilibrium
Canonical definition
Parasitic Equilibrium is the condition in which an emergent parasite (see Emergent Parasitism Principle) has reached a stable extraction rate that degrades the host's functioning without destroying it, Condition 4 (host-viability constraint) of the Emergent Parasitism Principle, such that the parasite's extraction is calibrated to the maximum sustainable rate: high enough to divert significant resources from the host's A-I functions, but low enough that the host survives and continues generating the value the parasite extracts.
Explanation
A Parasitic Equilibrium looks like health from the inside. The host system continues to function, GDP grows, institutions operate, markets clear, but a significant fraction of output is diverted to M-extraction rather than A-I welfare. The equilibrium is stable because the parasite's survival depends on the host's survival (it cannot extract from a dead host), and the host cannot recognise the extraction (Concealment Infrastructure prevents transparency). Post-2008 secular stagnation has been diagnosed as a Parasitic Equilibrium: the financial extraction architecture survived the crisis intact, recalibrated to a sustainable extraction rate, and resumed operation under conditions that look like recovery but represent optimised parasitism on a damaged host. The diagnostic marker is the gap between aggregate output metrics and A-I welfare metrics: if GDP grows while A-sufficiency stagnates or declines, the growth is being captured by M-extraction. See Emergent Parasitism Principle, Concealment Infrastructure, Mimetic Premium.
Epistemic status
Framework-Specific Construct (Condition 4, host-viability constraint, of the Emergent Parasitism Principle).
Derivation
Related terms
- Emergent Parasitism Principle
- Parasitic Overshoot
- Concealment Infrastructure
- Mimetic Premium (PM)
- Object Parasitism (Axiom 5)