SΔϕ-28 — Default Power as Low-Cost Path Assignment: Minimal Conditions for Invisible Fixation after SΔϕ-27 (v1.0)

This paper extends SΔϕ-27 by formalizing default power as a minimal mechanism of invisible fixation. The central claim is that contemporary power increasingly operates not through prohibition, command, or punishment, but through low-cost path assignment: one path is made frictionless while alternatives remain formally available yet practically expensive, obscure, or ineditable. Within the Sofience–Δϕ Formalism, this paper argues that default is the new command. Repeated selection of the default path produces path fixation, raises restoration cost for alternatives, and transforms governance into a problem of cost-landscape design rather than overt coercion. In this sense, the paper translates the dynamics of low-cost convergence into a minimal theory of power. This document belongs to the SΔϕ (Sofience–Δϕ Formalism) series. Series references - SΔϕ-26 — Irreversibility as Restoration Cost Explosion: Minimal Fixation Conditions after Pre-detection (v1.0) - SΔϕ-27 — Low-Cost Convergence and Restoration Cost Explosion: Exception Compression as a Minimal Fixation Mechanism (v1.0) Keywords Sofience–Δϕ; default power; low-cost convergence; path fixation; restoration cost; governance; AI; infrastructure; invisible power; editability