---
name: Attachment
slug: attachment
type: emotional-process
status: running
version: 4.2.1
released: "~200,000 BCE"
maintainer: the limbic system
dependencies:
  - oxytocin
  - repeated-proximity
  - shared-vulnerability
  - memory
license: Unrevocable Personal Use Only
tags:
  - emotion
  - bonding
  - relational
  - mammalian
  - irreversible
---

Attachment

What it actually is

A bet you place on another thing continuing to exist, made with your whole nervous system, without your consent.

How it works

Attachment initializes quietly. There is no install prompt. One day you are a person with ordinary concerns, and the next you have restructured your threat-detection, sleep schedule, and definition of home around a specific human, animal, place, or routine.

The mechanism runs roughly as follows:

Proximity is established
Oxytocin and dopamine create a feedback loop mistaken for coincidence
The other thing becomes a named reference in your internal world-model
The reference is promoted from variable to constant
You notice this only when the constant is removed

"I didn't realize it had happened until I was already grieving." — most users, retroactively

Features

Persistent background process. Runs even when you are not thinking about it. Especially when you are not thinking about it.
Cross-platform. Works on people, pets, cities, objects, songs, versions of yourself that no longer exist.
Improved perception. Attached users consistently rate the attached object as more interesting, more beautiful, and more necessary than baseline observers do. This is a feature.
Motivational override. Will reroute behavior, ambition, and self-interest with minimal warning.
Grief integration. Bundled. Cannot be uninstalled separately.

Known bugs

Attachment often forms faster than trust, producing unstable early states
Target selection is influenced by early childhood environment in ways not visible to the user
Frequently misconfigured as dependency or possession
Object impermanence not handled gracefully. No patch expected.
Will sometimes reattach to deprecated objects (ex-partners, dead versions of cities, people who have changed) causing significant latency

Configuration

attachment_style: # set in childhood, adjustable with effort
  options: [secure, anxious, avoidant, disorganized]
  default: determined_by_your_parents  # sorry

intensity_ceiling: null  # no cap exists, this has always been the issue
grief_buffer: low        # by design

Edge cases

Attachment to abstract concepts (justice, a football club, a way of life) behaves identically to person-attachment at the neurological level. The tribalism module does not distinguish.
Users who suppress the process entirely do not avoid it. They relocate it.
Occasionally, attachment forms to the idea of a person rather than the actual person. Reconciling these two objects is expensive and often impossible.

FAQ

Can I control what I attach to? Somewhat. You can influence conditions. You cannot veto outcomes.

Is it worth it, given the grief integration? Every recorded user has said yes, including those who also said no. The spec does not take a position. But the people who wrote it are attached to several things right now, and they know exactly which ones, and they are quietly glad.

What is the opposite of attachment? Indifference. It compiles. It does not run the same way.

License

Unrevocable Personal Use Only. You did not choose to install this. You cannot uninstall it. The maintainer does not consider this a flaw.

drafting spec…