Relational Avoidance and Simulation Substitution: V43 Diagnostic Addendum

Post-Horizon Instrumental Lineage — 4 August 2026 This record forms part of the Post-Horizon Instrumental Lineage of the Architecture of Limitation research programme. The designation and conditions governing subsequent review are established in K1 Open Concordance Phase: A Structured Validation and Evidence-Alignment Programme for the Open Research Release of AoLOS, v1.0, 2 August 2026, doi:10.5281/zenodo.21758275. The record is retained unchanged as evidence of the conditions, tools, concepts, and architectural pressures through which the programme developed. Inclusion in this lineage does not imply retrospective K1 validation or completion of article-level concordance; any proposition-specific qualification, reanalysis, companion publication, or unresolved pressure will be recorded separately through the phase’s declared review process. -- This diagnostic addendum applies the v43 architectural grammar to an observed pattern of relational avoidance and AI-mediated substitution under contemporary cultural conditions. Treating the phenomenon as a system under strain rather than a moral or psychological problem, the analysis examines how asymmetric cost–risk exposure, boundary degradation, and substitution pressures redistribute relational function across human–human and human–AI interfaces. The document maps failures in entry, exit, repair, and role boundaries, and shows how substitution via simulated interaction stabilises behaviour locally while leaving underlying structural conditions unresolved. Distinctions between contained and expanding simulation are used to identify where substitution functions as supportive infrastructure versus where it signals unresolved boundary failure. The purpose of the analysis is not explanation, prediction, or prescription, but to establish structural intelligibility and demonstrate the use of v43 as a real‑world diagnostic stress test. This work belongs to the Architecture of Limitation research program.