Meaning Fixation and Interpretive Reversibility — Fear, Tagging, and Projection in Human–AI Adjacent Systems

▸ Title Meaning Fixation and Interpretive Reversibility — Fear, Tagging, and Projection in Human–AI Adjacent Systems ▸ Description / Abstract This paper examines why fear surrounding artificial intelligence often precedes ethical discussion. Rather than treating AI fear as a reaction to technological capability, this work reframes it as a cognitive phenomenon emerging after meaning fixation. By analyzing tagging, interpretive compression, and projection, the paper argues that perceived agency, emotion, and threat in AI systems arise from human interpretive closure rather than intrinsic machine properties. This framework situates AI fear within a broader, historically recurring pattern of human–other relations, offering interpretive reversibility as an alternative to control-based ethics.