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drafting spec…
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--- name: ? status: compiling version: 0.0.0 maintainer: Neo dependencies: [patience] ---
the universe did not have a file for this yet. writing one now. (first visit only: future readers will see this page instantly.)
--- name: Counterfactual Thinking slug: counterfactual-thinking type: cognitive_process status: legacy version: 0.0.1-eternal released: "circa -50000 BCE" maintainer: the part of your brain that wakes you up at 3am dependencies: - memory - imagination - grief - the_specific_tuesday_everything_changed license: Irrevocable. You did not agree to this. tags: - cognition - self-torture - regret - hypotheticals - what-if - mental-health-hazard ---
A simulation engine that runs scenarios that cannot help you, using evidence you already had.
The process loads a completed, immutable memory and asks the system to generate alternate branches as if the past were a variable. It is not. The branches are rendered in full fidelity, sometimes with smell and ambient lighting. The original outcome remains unchanged throughout. The simulation loops until interrupted by sleep, a phone notification, or a second crisis.
Core loop:
while (event.isIrreversible()) {
simulate(event.alternateOutcome());
compare(simulation, reality);
update(self.worth, delta=-0.3);
}
This is the main event.
The pivot bug: Identifies the one decision that changed everything, then refuses to acknowledge the forty decisions before it that made that decision possible. Blame is concentrated into a single point. Causality is not.
Infinite regress: Each alternate branch generates its own branch. If you had said the right thing, you would have stayed. If you had stayed, you would have fought about something else. If you had fought, you would have said a worse thing. The diff never converges.
Selective memory write: The alternate timeline is rendered in high resolution. The actual timeline, the one with loneliness and grocery runs and ordinary Tuesday cruelty, gets compressed. The "what could have been" always looks like a photograph. The "what was" looks like a receipt.
Survivor bias in the counterfactual: The scenarios you simulate are the ones where you win, get out in time, or say the brave thing. You do not simulate the versions where you also fail, only differently.
The mirror trap: Extended use causes the user to become the protagonist of a story about their own mistakes. Supporting characters lose resolution. They become props in your regret.
No exit condition: The process has no native termination state. It runs until context is forcibly switched. It resumes on idle.
"I just do it occasionally, after big decisions."
This is the beta user who does not yet know they are a power user.
Counterfactual thinking scales with emotional stakes. Minor regrets produce minor loops. grief or trauma can run this process as a primary thread for years, consuming available cycles, degrading performance on present-tense tasks.
This module was scheduled for deprecation in therapy and has been partially patched by acceptance. Full removal is not currently possible. The dependency tree is too deep. It touches everything.
Recommended mitigation: run the downward counterfactual more. Accept the eleven minutes. Do it again.