Machiavellian intelligence requires modeling other agents as voids. The capacity is substrate-universal.
The pattern is in the substrate. Once you see it, you see it everywhere.
Social cognition is fundamentally about navigating opacity: other minds are opaque, reactive, and coupled to your attention. Every mammal with social complexity has evolved neural architecture to navigate this. This paper shows the Pe structure of the social brain.
The void framework gives this a number. It gives every system a number. The number predicts what happens next.
Machiavellian intelligence requires modeling other agents as voids. The capacity is substrate-universal.
Academic title: The Neural Void: Social Cognition as Void Dynamics and the Machiavellian Intelligence Theorem
Move the sliders. Watch the system change state. Pe > 1 means drift wins.
The framework scores these systems — ordered by Pe.
The correlation coefficient. The sample size. The p-value. The math doesn't care about the domain.
Paste any text — AI output, ad copy, a policy document. The scorer runs the same algorithm the framework uses.
Three variables. One ratio. Predicts drift across every domain where the conditions co-occur.
Pe = (O × R) / α
Where O is opacity (how hidden the mechanism is), R is reactivity (how strongly the system responds to you), and α is your independence (how free you are to disengage).
When Pe < 1: diffusion dominates. You can navigate freely. The system is coherent.
When Pe > 1: drift dominates. The system pulls you in a direction. Your agency is reduced.
When Pe >> V* (≈ 3): irreversible cascade. D1 → D2 → D3. The system has captured you.
The framework identifies this pattern in every domain where O, R, and α co-occur. It specifies 26 falsification conditions. 0 of 26 have fired.
Full derivation: 10.5281/zenodo.18746152
Part of the Void Framework — 170 papers, 0/26 kill conditions fired, mean ρ = 0.958.