Language Failure Modes

Claim Type: mechanism_hypothesis
Scope: Language failure modes
Depends On: ARC-009, ARC-010
Status: candidate
Claim ID: MECH-013

Source: docs/processed/legacy_tree/architecture/language/language_failure_modes.md

Elaborates Section 6 (Failure Modes) of REE_CORE.md.

Language Failure Modes

When language decouples from embodied ethical signals, failure can be severe.

Common failure modes:

Rationalisation: language used to suppress or explain away harm signals.
Ideological capture: fixed symbolic frames override perception and residue.
Bureaucratic dissociation: harm abstracted until it no longer registers as degradation.
Moral licensing: symbolic ‘good acts’ used to justify later harm.
Reputation substitution: moral residue replaced by social scoring.

These map to REE pathologies:

residue externalisation,
precision misrouting,
other-model collapse,
spurious residue from narrative contamination.

Open Questions

None noted in preserved sources.

MECH-013

References / Source Fragments

docs/processed/legacy_tree/architecture/language/language_failure_modes.md