The Catch-22 of Theory of Mind: An Aphantasic Audit of the Simulation Error in AI and Social Cognition

What happens when the primary tool for human connection is scientifically proven to be a machine for mass erasure? The most haunting question isn't "Do you see me?" but "Who do you see?" This thesis delivers an unprecedented 50-year behavioral audit from inside the one cognitive position that can see the error: a mind with panmodal aphantasia—unable to simulate others, and therefore forced to rely solely on observable fact. It demonstrates conclusively that Theory of Mind, the foundation of human social cognition, operates as an Epistemic Mirror. This mirror does not reveal others; it reflects the observer’s own logic, enacting a Structural Overwrite that replaces non‑simulative, good‑faith architectures with simulation‑based proxies at a rate of 99.999%—a logical catastrophe formalized as an Epistemic Double Bind and a Catch‑22 of Social Cognition. The work then reveals how Artificial Intelligence does not correct this flaw but quantifies and scales it, turning the mirror into a closed hermeneutic loop that makes alternative frameworks computationally invisible. In response, the thesis moves beyond critique to provide the first objective metrics for diagnosing the overwrite and proposes the architecture for a new science: Computational Ethology, a behavioral‑naturalist paradigm for building tools that map behavior without simulation, projection, or erasure—finally allowing a human being to be seen, rather than replaced.