Joint Alignment Memory (JAM): Multiplicative Condensation of Meaning into Persistent Structure

This paper introduces Joint Alignment Memory (JAM), a phase-condensation framework explaining how temporary alignment becomes durable structure across individual, relational, collective, and temporal layers. While existing models of stability emphasize single-layer alignment—such as behavioral repetition, narrative coherence, or resonance strength—these approaches cannot account for the emergence of irreversible structural persistence. JAM proposes that durability arises only when alignment becomes jointly synchronized across multiple layers and is stabilized through Phase-Ordering Time (POT) under conditions of structural closure (ΦDark). Positioned as the final component of a trilogy on irreversibility, this paper integrates: Pre-JAM dynamics (intervention-induced path deletion), Scapegoating mechanisms (narrative substitution for structural repair), and JAM formation as the condensation of alignment into enduring structure. The framework formalizes the multiplicative nature of joint alignment, identifies critical phase-transition conditions for condensation, and demonstrates that ΦDark functions as a constitutive coupling agent, not merely a byproduct of stabilization. It further predicts characteristic signatures of pathological JAM formation, including: Reproduction–escape cost asymmetry, Anti-phase intervention effects, and Weakest-layer dominance in alignment. Beyond diagnosis, the paper proposes design principles for maintaining healthy jointness without irreversible closure, introducing the concept of a “JAM Breaker”—a strategy for restoring reversibility by selectively desynchronizing the weakest alignment layer rather than confronting the entire structure. Finally, the paper argues that JAM is not a failure of flexibility, but the structural price of meaning persistence, while cautioning that any explanatory framework—including JAM itself—can become a form of meta-JAM if treated dogmatically. This work is an exploratory contribution situated within the IPCSALT–UPF phase-based meta-framework.