Research / Papers

ArcheNova publishes essays and papers as boundary statements. Each entry is summarized as: Question → Structural Significance → Irreversibility.

ArcheNova Essays

EssayArcheNova

Minimal Constraint Determination — A Civilization Design Principle

Question
What is the smallest set of non-negotiable constraints that eliminates catastrophic futures?
Structural Significance
Shifts governance from optimization/regulation to boundary-design: delete illegitimate trajectories upstream.
Irreversibility
Once constraints are embedded as infrastructure-level commitments, responsibility cannot be delegated or reversed.
arXiv
EssayArcheNova

Irreversibility as Infrastructure — Beyond Monitoring and Correction

Question
How can civilization remain locally free while globally safe under accelerating capability?
Structural Significance
Reframes stability as refusal-by-design (materials, geometry, contracts), not continuous adjustment.
Irreversibility
Embedding refusal into structure converts failure from a managed risk into an impossible trajectory.
arXiv

Domain Papers (PDF)

PaperFundamental Physics

Experimental Graviton Detection — Ambiguity Elimination Design

Question
Does gravity participate in quantum reality as a discrete interaction?
Structural Significance
Designs an experiment that removes interpretive freedom by forcing a measurable consequence under extreme coherence.
Irreversibility
A positive/negative result fixes the ontology of gravity in a way that cannot be 'explained away' by noise models.
PDFarXiv
PaperQuantum Infrastructure

Memory-first Quantum Infrastructure — Stability by Boundary Design

Question
What makes quantum systems infrastructure rather than fragile devices?
Structural Significance
Moves the center from active correction to physical refusal: interfaces, thermal paths, geometry, and protocols.
Irreversibility
When failure modes are structurally removed, scaling does not accumulate operational complexity irreversibly.
PDFarXiv
PaperEnergy & Planetary Systems

Fission Surface Power as Planetary Continuity

Question
What changes when energy is decoupled from planetary variability?
Structural Significance
Transforms presence into permanence: continuous power becomes a boundary condition for industry, life-support, computation.
Irreversibility
Deployment binds intergenerational responsibility (safety, custody, decommissioning) that cannot be exited cheaply.
PDF
PaperAI & Computation

Constraint-first Computation — Deleting Catastrophic Trajectories

Question
How do we prevent futures that must never exist under AGI-scale capability?
Structural Significance
Treats governance as a design problem: encode legitimacy and refusal into systems, not external monitoring.
Irreversibility
Once capability compresses, ex post correction is too slow; only upstream constraints remain actionable.
PDF
PaperInstitutional / Legal Design

Irreversible Responsibility Contracts — Preventing Accountability Escape

Question
How do we bind power and responsibility when organizations fragment accountability?
Structural Significance
Uses institutional design to block dilution/withdrawal: responsibility must remain indivisible at scale.
Irreversibility
Contracts become structural constraints—exit routes are removed by design, not by enforcement after failure.
PDF
PaperCivilization-scale Systems

Civilization-scale Boundary Design — Local Freedom, Global Safety

Question
What constraints guarantee safety while preserving degrees of freedom inside the safe region?
Structural Significance
Formalizes minimal non-negotiables as the only scalable governance primitive for coupled irreversible systems.
Irreversibility
Once embedded at infrastructure/legal layers, catastrophic trajectories are not 'managed'—they are deleted.
PDF