ICARUS — Third-Order Regulation (TOR): Laboratory Hypothesis on Structural Limits of Regulation

This record documents the Third-Order Regulation (TOR) hypothesis within theICARUS closed-cycle homeostatic architecture. TOR does not define an implementable regulatory mechanism.It defines the structural boundary beyond which ICARUS ceases to be aclosed-cycle, non-representational architecture. This version includes non-normative laboratory diagnostic code(TOR-a and TOR-negative) intended solely to demonstrate and detectthe structural limit of regulation after Second-Order saturation. These diagnostics:- introduce no new regulatory mechanisms,- do not extend ICARUS,- serve only to falsify or confirm regulatory exhaustion. Any system introducing reconfiguration, representational structure,external reference, or semantic control beyond this boundaryis no longer ICARUS. No claims about intelligence, learning, or consciousness are made.