The Absorption Gradient: A Testable Account of Where Originating Value Resides in Reading

This note states a claim and registers an experiment to test it, including the outcome under which the claim is false. The claim: the value of originating thinking resides only in what has not yet been absorbed into the common record, and dissipates upon absorption. A large language model, being constructed from the aggregate of recorded text, occupies the absorbed position by construction; it can hold the record but cannot originate from outside it. Applied to reading, the claim predicts that agreement among independent readers about where a text's load resides will track how much structure the text contains, and asks whether any agreement remains once structure is removed. A graded-series experiment with a pre-registered null is specified below. If readers' agreement on a fully destructured text is statistically indistinguishable from chance, the claim is not supported, and that result will be reported.