AIM Framework glossary

Scaling Asymmetry of Correct Hypotheses

Canonical definition

The architectural fact that a correctly-constructed systemic Hypothesis, once formed, faces a second and independent difficulty distinct from the difficulty of forming it, the difficulty of propagating it to others. Because Axiom 8's content-agnostic Belief-revision machinery processes the correct signal against listeners whose own priors have, independently and for the same update-rate reasons captured by the Configural Update-Rate Asymmetry, already converged on an agent-based explanation supplied by their own perception channels, the correct Hypothesis arrives at an already-decohered prior carrying a correspondingly high likelihood-ratio requirement. The resistance compounds across a population through the exchange of Evidence, as each listener's continued expression of the dominant agent-based explanation becomes further endogenous evidence reinforcing that explanation in everyone else. The asymmetry is resolved only by changing the listening population's priors through repeated exposure or by reducing the population's Coupling Strength, not by any further articulation effort on the Hypothesis-holder's part.

Explanation

Even once someone works out the correct big-picture explanation, getting others to accept it is a separate uphill battle. Everyone they talk to has already, on their own, landed on a simpler "who did it" story, for exactly the same reasons the first person almost did. So the correct explanation shows up to an audience already sure of something else, and it needs a great deal of evidence to shift them. Worse, every time those others keep repeating the simple story, they reinforce it in one another. The only things that help are showing the correct picture over and over until it sinks in, or lowering how much the group takes its cues from each other, not the lone holder of the correct view trying harder to explain it.

Epistemic status

Framework-Specific Corollary. Derived from Axiom 8 (Bayesian Belief Dynamics), the network Evidence channel (Appendix A, Section A.5.7.2, N2), the Configural Update-Rate Asymmetry, and the Transmission-Deliberation Asymmetry (Chapter 4 §4.3.10).

Derivation

Chapter 4, Section 4.3.10.

Related terms