Mind · Dynamics
Identitylag
Abilities or circumstances change while self-understanding stays organised around an earlier condition
Definition
Mechanism
A person's or agent's situation changes, but the self-description guiding its expectations and choices still reflects the earlier situation, so for a period what it takes itself to be able or expected to do differs from its changed circumstances. The change can be a gain, a loss or a reorganisation, and eventual adjustment is not guaranteed. A new inaccurate belief about the self is not automatically a lag; the self-description must have been anchored to an earlier condition.
Invariants
- A self-understanding was anchored to an earlier condition.
- A relevant change in abilities or circumstances has not yet been incorporated into it.
Risks
Failure modes
Persistence read as stability
a persisting self-description is taken to show that circumstances have not changed.
Disagreement read as lag
every disagreement with an outside assessment is taken as a lag in self-understanding.
Claimed change accepted
a claimed new capability is taken as real when the evidence says it is unreliable.
Relationships
Root pattern: builds on nothing in this library.
Nothing in this library builds on this pattern yet.
Reference