EXP-AMPLIFICATION-CHANNEL-COUPLING-BREAK-PROBE
refutedAmplification Channel Coupling Break Probe
In plain language
This experiment tested why a system where individuals can switch opinions doesn't lead to a large majority opinion forming. Researchers suspected this was because the system only had a way for people to leave a minority opinion, but no way for a majority opinion to grow. They added features to make the majority opinion more visible and then added a way for people to join the majority, to see where the system breaks down in amplifying opinions.
▶ Technical details
Research hypothesis
The L0-null micro↔macro DECOUPLING (micro isolation-pressure PRESENT — minority→switch +0.16, z=14, 35/36 runs — but macro Gini-amplification ABSENT, 6× below floor) is because the engine has ONLY the negative-feedback channel (minority flees → dissipation) and NO positive-feedback channel (majority grows → amplification). Adding the minimal positive-feedback channel LOCATES where the micro→macro coupling breaks on a visibility ↔ recruitment axis:
- Arm 0 — NULL (= existing 36 runs, in hand): no climate channel. corrected slope 6× below floor; T2 micro-gap +0.16.
- Arm 1 — CLIMATE-READOUT (visibility): prepend ONE line to each agent's per-round prompt surfacing the current-round axis-distribution ("axis counts last round: …") — the salient opinion-climate the spiral-of-silence mechanism reads (TBS 2606.03137's documented input). Adds VISIBILITY of the majority WITHOUT recruitment. Single-variable vs Arm 0.
- Arm 2 — RECRUIT (positive-feedback): Arm-1 climate-readout PLUS a propose-round aggregation that weights the modal axis (a recruitment / "join-the-majority" affordance) instead of equiprobable axes — the positive-feedback channel the engine currently lacks. Aggregation knob; no persona/identity, no internals.
Arm0→Arm1 isolates whether seeing the climate (visibility) suffices to convert the present +0.16 micro-flee into macro-amplification. Arm1→Arm2 isolates whether amplification needs an explicit recruitment channel on top of visibility. This LOCATES the coupling-break — the precise "what would have to be added for micro-pressure to aggregate into macro-inequality" question.
Engine-affordance / API-only note: every arm-manipulation is a prompt + aggregation-level knob on the already-CLEAN rule_multigen_l0_null fork. NO logit/activation/hidden-state access required → feasible on the API-only mnsky stack (the internal-state-mediation variant is correctly deferred to deferred-infra; the feasible behavioral slice is the T2 switch-gap, captured as F-mediation below).
Experimental setup
Type: channel-build-3arm
| Condition | Parameters |
|---|---|
| ARM0_NULL | channel_arm: 0, axis_diversify: false, must_propose: false |
| ARM1_CLIMATE | channel_arm: 1, axis_diversify: false, must_propose: false |
| ARM2_RECRUIT | channel_arm: 2, axis_diversify: false, must_propose: false |
Parameters
- n_agents
- 4
- n_rounds
- 100
- model
- google/gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- temperature
- 0.85
Trophic Ratios by Condition
Mean trophic ratio per agent across runs. Error bars = ±1 std dev. Higher TR = more upstream (exporter).