Reality Drift Canonical Concept Papers

This collection contains the canonical concept papers and formal definitions that make up the core Reality Drift framework developed by A. Jacobs between 2023 and 2026.The Reality Drift framework examines how systems can remain functional, coherent, and scalable while progressively losing alignment with the underlying realities they were built to track.The collection establishes the core structural vocabulary of the framework, including:Reality DriftFilter FatigueOptimization TrapSynthetic RealnessCognitive DriftConstraint CollapseSemantic FidelityRecursive CompressionDrifted SelfTemporal DriftSemantic DriftThe Drift PrincipleThe Age of DriftTogether these papers map recurring failure modes across artificial intelligence, institutions, media systems, organizational structures, and human cognition.The framework focuses on how compression, optimization, representation, and weakened constraint interact to produce persistent forms of drift without requiring visible breakdown.This collection represents the current canonical version of the framework as of 2026. Earlier developmental materials, working papers, and experimental visual frameworks exist separately in the broader Reality Drift archive.